Shinigami Twins
by Mistress of the Words
Summary: Discontinued. My apologies.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary:**What if Shiro was Ichigo's twin? They both meet Rukia Kuchiki when the hollow attacks and she transfers some of her powers to each of the twins. Thus the story begins differently. There is no yaoi or pairings in this story (except maybe one-sided IchiHime) just close friendships and bonds with family.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. If you recognize anything else from somewhere I don't own that either! I only own the plot and maybe a couple random OCs that might pop up.

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"Tadaima." Ichigo says as he enters the Kurosaki house. He then receives a kick to the face and lands unceremoniously in a heap on the floor. Shiro then punches their father in the face and pulls Ichigo to his feet.

"Nice welcome home gift dad but can you give a rest? Geez, one of these days you're gonna break something." He says to their dark haired and bearded father.

"Never let your guard down. And that's your punishment for being late for dinner. Speaking if which…" he then jumps and spins a kick towards Shiro but he easily catches their father's foot and throws him across the room.

"Dinner's ready!" they hear a voice call from the dining room.

"Goat Face stop trying to beat up the boys and get out here!" they hear another voice call.

Isshin, the boys' father, then proceeds to start crying and rushes to hug a giant poster if a beautiful woman with wavy long brown hair. "Masaki," he cries. "What have I done? Our children are being so cold to daddy!" He then gets thrown across the room by a kick to the face from a young girl with short black hair.

"Shut up and stop talking to that poster of mom!" she shouts.

"Nice kick Karin!" Shiro laughs. Ichigo smiles next him. Karin 'hmphs' and walks back toward the dining room saying, "Yuzu made a nice dinner, get out here and eat it before it gets cold. And you have another one behind you."

"GAH!" Ichigo gasps. "Why are so many popping up lately?"

"We can see spirits, they are probably just drawn to us somehow….don't see why though, we can't do anything for them." Shiro responds shooing away the middle-aged ghost floating around their heads. The ghost floats off moaning and the boys go to dinner.

Later that evening Shiro and Ichigo are in their room doing their homework. Well, Ichigo is doing his and Shiro is just copying. "Is there even a brain beneath that white hair of your's Shiro? I am pretty sure there is so why don't you use it!" says the orange haired twin.

"But Ichigo, you're so smart! I would just get everything wrong; besides, you already have the answers so why do them again? I can just get them from you!" says the slightly older twin.

Ichigo just sighs and says, "Why do I even bother?" and goes back to his homework while Shiro continues to copy.

A few minutes later, however, a short girl with black hair steps through their wall and stands on their desk. Shiro notices her first and pokes his orange haired doppelganger on the shoulder, "Psst! Ichigo, looks like we have a visitor?" the statement sounded more like a question.

"Huh?" Ichigo looks up a little and see the girl then shouts, "Hey! Who are you and what are you doing here?"

The girl acts as if she didn't hear. Ichigo gets a little ticked off and knocks the girl off the desk. "I asked you a question!"

The girl looks surprised and Shiro tries to calm his hotheaded brother down. "Chill Ichi! Maybe she didn't hear you…" They both hear a faint gasp from the girl and she asks, "You two can see me?"

"Psh, ya! If we couldn't would you be on the floor right now?," Shiro reasons. "Who or what are you anyway? You don't look like other souls we see."

"So you can see spirits too…well, I am a shinigami." She says. "May I ask who you two are?"

"I suppose so, I am Shiro Kurosaki and he's my little twin Ichigo." Shiro explains. Ichigo slaps upside the head, "I am not little! I am only younger by a minute or two!"

"So; what difference does that make? You are still younger than me!" Shiro retorts, he turns back to the girl and asks, "So, why are you here, exactly?"

"I felt a strong spiritual pressure in this area but it's gone now…" she looks a little confused at the end of her sentence.

"Dammit! Would you leave me alone old man?! I thought we got rid of you earlier!" Ichigo suddenly shouts. The shinigami and Shiro turn to see Ichigo trying to shoo away the ghost from earlier.

"Yeah, we did shoo him off before dinner…what's he want now Ichi?" Shiro asks. Ichigo looks over at him and says, "How should I kno…" he suddenly stops what he was saying and asks, "What was that?"

"What was what Ichi? Did you hear someth…" Shiro stops too as he apparently hears whatever Ichigo heard. "That howl?" he asks his younger twin. Ichigo nods but the girl just gives them a blank stare and asks, "What are you two talking about?

The twins look over at her incredulously and ask in unison, "You didn't hear that?!"

Suddenly a long spine shivering howl echoes through the room again and the girl hears it too this time. 'How did they hear the hollow before me?' she thinks to herself. "You two stay here!" she orders. "WHY?! What are you gonna do?" they ask, again at the same time.

She then quickly explains with drawings about Plus spirits and Hollow spirits and shinigami. **[A/N: If you have watched the show you know this stuff, if not, it's in the first episode. ^^] **After her explanation the brothers just stare at her with obvious disbelief. "Yeah, and I'm Dumbo the flying elephant!" shouts Shiro as he flips a table. Ichigo just sits there, taking it all in.

All of a sudden they hear a crash from downstairs and a cry from Yuzu. They hear another of the strange howls too. The door to their room opens and Yuzu falls to the floor in the hallway outside with blood running down her face from a wound on her forehead. "Run," she says weakly. "Run away Ichigo and Shiro. The monster knocked out daddy and has Karin….run before it finds you!" she then loses consciousness.

"YUZU!" Ichigo cries and rushes to her side. The shinigami puts a hand on his shoulder, "Don't worry, she only passed out. She'll be fine." The girl then runs past him and down the stairs. Ichigo follows her and yells over his shoulder towards Shiro, "Take care of Yuzu!"

"What the hell are you gonna do you dumbass?!" Shiro shouts back, but he is already gone. Shiro curses under his breath and follows after his brother.  
When he gets outside he is just in time to see a giant monster with a white mask throw Ichigo to the ground. Ichigo grunts in pain but gets right back up, Shiro then sees Karin in the monsters fist. He runs towards the masked monster, which he assumes is the Hollow that the shinigami talked about, and rams a spinning kick to its face. The monster flies backwards and Karin falls from its grasp. Shiro quickly grabs his sister and dashes over to Ichigo.

"Ichigo are you alright?" he asks worriedly. Ichigo nods and looks behind them, his eyes widen then and he shouts, "Shiro look out!" He shoves him down as the beast lunges and the Hollow rams into Ichigo sending him flying into the wall of the house. Ichigo gets back up stiffly and says, "Definitely gonna feel that later…" Shiro sets Karin down and whacks his brother on the head. "You idiot!" he yells. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?!"

"I just saved your life and this is how you thank me? Wow you have _such_gratitude!" Ichigo retorts.

"Will you two save it and stay back? You are no match for this Hollow as you are!" says the shinigami girl, she is leaning against a wall next to a telephone pole clutching her shoulder.

"What happened to her?" Shiro asks. Ichigo rubs the back of his head. "I hit the thing with a baseball bat and the thing broke. The Hollow tried to come after me then and she," he points to the girl. "Had to jump in and save me. So she got hurt."

"Do you want to save your family?" the girl asks them.  
"Why would we not?!" the brothers say together.  
The girl holds her sword out in front of her and says, "If you want to save your family you have to become a shinigami too. Push my zanpakto into your chest and I will transfer some of my powers to each of you."

They do as they are told and Shiro and Ichigo are suddenly in the same black and white clothing as the girl. They each have a large, broad zanpakto; Ichigo's is as big as himself with a short blue ribbon on the end. Shiro's is the same size but a bit thinner with a short red ribbon the end. 'They took nearly all my power! I have never felt such strong spiritual pressure from anyone! It could be stronger than a captain's! And I have never seen zanpakto become so big! …Who are these boys?' the girl asks herself.

Shiro and Ichigo jump towards the Hollow and each slice off an arm. "Aim for the mask!" the girl shouts. "Got it!" the twins shout and launch themselves toward the monster again. This time they slice cleanly through the white mask and the Hollow disintegrates into the air.

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So what do you think? Like it? Hate it? There's a little button down there that's giving you adorable irresistable puppy eyes! Those who review get cyber cookies!


	2. Chapter 2

DISCLAIMER: I know a teenager can't own an anime, sadly. If I did Hichigo would be a good guy.

Now some shout outs to my reviewers!

**LyricalSin: **Congratulations! You were my first reviewer!

**Hollowfiedme1: **Thank you for your lovely review! Shiro and Ichigo are my favorites too. Love Toshiro too, but unfortunately I am going by the anime episodes and he won't be around 'til much later

**Impstar: **I am kinda curious as to how this story will turn out too... (laughs) I don't really plan my stories, I just write, but if I can I will say that this story is one of my best! Their attitudes won't be that different from each other, Shiro won't be insane (unfortunately) because that wouldn't fit with my story. And I will update as often as I can.

**Heartless Thief: **Thank you for your positive comment!

That's it and now on with the story!

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"Goooooood moooorning boys!" Isshin said in his usual loud voice as he tried to land a kick in their faces. Shiro pins their father to the floor with his legs tucked beneath him. Isshin groans and Ichigo yells, "You nut! What kind of sick, twisted freak attacks his own sons while they're just lying there sleepin'?!"  
Isshin responds, "You boys are getting good! Looks like there's nothing left for me to teach you my sons!"

Shiro and Ichigo just gape at him. Shiro recovers first and asks, "What about last night? Are Yuzu and Karin okay?" Their dad just looks at them, completely confused.

They are then standing outside looking at a huge hole in the wall connected to the kitchen. "It's a miracle! A truck plows into our house and no one gets a single scratch!" Isshin says. Shiro and Ichigo just stand and stare at it while Karin replies in a dry voice, "What's more of a miracle is that none of us even woke up!"

Ichigo whispers to Shiro, "All their injuries are gone! They think a truck did this? Could that shinigami have something to do with this?" Shiro just shrugs a response as he follows Yuzu and Karin back inside. Yuzu turns to Ichigo, "Ichi-nii you better hurry up and eat or you'll be late for school!"

"Yeah, be there in a second Yuz." He says back. He stares at the hole in the wall a little more then goes inside with everyone else.

At school two girls walk down the hall towards the classroom, one has short spiky black hair and dark eyes. The other has long orange hair and grey eyes. As they are passing another hallway the second girl runs into Ichigo. "Ah!" she says and falls to the floor, spilling her books. Ichigo looks down, "Oh, it's you, hey Orihime!" he says. Shiro nudges his brother, and chuckles, "She your girlfriend Ichi?" He teases. Orihime blushes deeply and says, "Oh no, it's nothing like that! We're just friends!"

The second girl cuts in then and protests, "Ichigo; you knock her down and that's all you say? What the hell is up with you?"

"Geez, Tatsuki, it was an accident." Ichigo defends himself. Shiro pipes in, "And technically he didn't knock her down, she ran into him and fell on her own." His twin elbows him in the ribs, "Stop it! It doesn't matter who did it she is still on the floor!" He offers her his hand and helps her up, "Sorry about that, but my twin can be a bit of a pest sometimes." They ignore his brother's loud protests behind them and continue down the hallway together.

Tatsuki suddenly turns to the two brothers and asks, "By the way, why are you two so late? It's lunch time already!"  
"Eh, don't worry about it." Ichigo says. "We'll tell you later." They say at the same time. Tatsuki gives them a look. "What?" they say again, and then turn to each other and say, "Stop saying what I'm saying! GAH!"  
Orihime giggles at this and they all turn to her with questioning looks. "Oh, it's nothing! I just thought you two talking together was funny."  
The two shrug and they all continue to lunch.

After lunch in the classroom Ichigo and Shiro are talking with their friends, Keigo, Mizurio, and Chad.  
"Hey Ichigo, I heard a truck crashed through your house last night!" Keigo says.

"Yeah, that's right, right on through the wall connected to the kitchen. Surprisingly enough we all somehow slept right through it and none of us are hurt!" Shiro says.

"So, you clean it all up yet?" Mizurio asks the brothers.  
"Are you kidding?" Ichigo asks.  
"That'll take forever!" they say together. Their friends chuckle as the twins start fighting over one copying the other.  
"Want some help?" asked Chad. Ichigo looks up at his tall friend and says, "Uhh, no thanks Chad, that's okay."

"What he means is you would probably bring the whole house down!" Shiro laughs. It earns him an elbow in the gut and Ichigo yells at him, "Must you be such a jerk to our friends? Jeez, how did I get stuck with you as my double?"

"Ahem, I believe that technically that you would be my double. You were born a minute and a half after me!" Shiro retorts. The twins then proceed to get into a full out argument.

The friends stop watching and the two brothers stop fighting when they hear someone clear their throat behind them. When they turn around they gape at the person before them. It's the shinigami girl from last night!

She holds out her hand with a polite smile and introduces herself, "Hello, my name is Rukia Kuchiki! It's a pleasure to meet you!"

Later the boys manage to talk to Rukia alone. "Okay, so what are you doing here and why are you here?" Ichigo questions her. "Yeah and why didn't you go back to that Soul Society place or whatever?" Shiro adds.

"Only shinigami can return to Soul Society." Rukia explains, not looking at them.

The brothers are utterly confused and ask, "What do you mean only shinigami? You are a shinigami!"

"No I am not, not at the moment anyway. When I transferred my powers nearly all of them were given to you." She explained.

The boys stare at her in slight shock. "Well, we…" Ichigo starts. "…Wouldn't know anything about that." Shiro finishes.  
Rukia looks closely at the twins in front of her. Shiro and Ichigo look exactly alike apart from a few details. They have the same build, muscular but lean, Shiro looking a little stronger. They both have the same short spiky hair, Ichigo's hair was a bright, almost neon, orange and he was tanned. Shiro, living up to the meaning of his name, had pure white hair and was very pale. Shiro's eyes, she noticed, were very intimidating; they were a shocking golden color while Ichigo's were a gentle brown.

"Hellooooo, you still with us Kuchiki?" Shiro asks the short raven-haired shinigami. She blinks and looks up at them with a serious expression and explains, "Since I do not have my shinigami powers it's up to you two to perform the duties of a shinigami. It makes sense, you have the powers of a shinigami, you do not have the right to refuse your calling!"

Both brothers automatically make an 'X' with their hands and say, "No way!"

"What do you mean?" she asks.

"My monster fighting days are over!" Ichigo says. "That was a onetime deal." Shiro adds.

"Don't be ridiculous you two, you did fine last night!" Rukia encourages.

"That was only because our family was in danger." Ichigo explains. Shiro continues, "Yeah, you can't expect us to just help random strangers or anything." "Sorry to disappoint you." They say as they walk away together.

Rukia just sighs and mutters, "So that's how it's going to be….well then." She pulls on a pair of red gloves with a skull surrounded by black and blue fire. She runs towards the brothers and looks as if she is going to smack them upside the head but her hands go through their heads. Their lifeless bodies fall to the ground and the boys go flying, wearing the same black uniforms they were the night before!

"What did you do to us?!" they yell at her.

Rukia doesn't explain and just says, "Follow me." The brothers share a glance and a shrug before they follow after the short shinigami.

They wind up outside a small playground area. "What are we doing here?" Shiro asks.

"Following orders." Rukia says simply as she glances at a silver cell phone. "A boy's spirit who is here is expected to be attacked soon."

As soon as she finishes they hear a cry and look over to see a young boy, about 7 being chased by a spider looking Hollow.

"Help! Somebody help me!" he cries out as he keeps running.

Ichigo darts toward the boy but Rukia shouts, "Wait, what do you think you're doing? He's a complete stranger."

Both boys look at her incredulously as if to say, "Are you nuts?"

"I can't just stand here while someone's in trouble!" Ichigo protests and starts toward the boy again. Rukia interferes once again saying, "Don't be a fool! In a shinigami's eyes all souls of this world are equal! Getting involved simply because spirits are nearby or need help isn't how it works."

The boy cries out again and Ichigo turns toward him but Rukia shouts, "Leave him be! If you help this child then commit yourself to saving every spirit! You must be willing to do anything, even sacrifice your life."

Ichigo stands still, debating what Rukia is saying. Shiro then rushes forward suddenly and slices off the two front arms of the spider creature and it flies back into the ground where it disappears.

Rukia gasps then asks, "Have you made your decision?"

"Like hell we have!" they shout. "We haven't decided to do squat," Shiro says. "And don't talk that way to Ichigo...he ain't good at decision making under pressure." He adds. Ichigo opens his mouth to protest but shuts it again when he sees the Hollow comes back and starts to charge toward his brother. He runs toward him and jumps over and as he is coming down he slices cleanly through the white bone mask covering the spider's face. He turns around as it disintegrates.

"We saved this kid because we wanted to? What about you?" Ichigo asks her.

"Me?" she asks.

"Yeah, I seem to remember you putting your life on the line to save me last night. What were you thinking then, were you really thinking about your duty when you rushed to save me? Of course not, that's the last thing on your mind when you save someone!" he shouts.

Rukia gasps softly. "If anything, we choose to be different from that." He finishes.

Shiro turns to the kid then, "If you don't want that to happen again then you better hurry up and pass on." He says as he stamps the hilt of his zanpakto against the kid's forehead. A symbol appears and the boy sinks into a circle of blue light. After it disappears a purple butterfly flies away.

Outside Orihime's house a young man is standing in the air, watching her through the kitchen window as she studies. She gets up to close the curtains and he sighs. Then suddenly two Hollows appear behind him and wrap him in tentacles. "What are you doing?" he cries. "Let me go!" He struggles as they pull him into a shadowy portal. They appear again in a dark, shadowy place with many towering rocks and sand everywhere. The man tries to run but a big, dark Hollow sends other Hollow after him. They surround him and devour him. He then seems to struggle against something but he transforms into a worm like Hollow. As he looks up he lets out a long mournful howl.

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I am so glad with all the reviews I got on this story so far!


	3. Chapter 3

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Bleach! The only thing I own is the plot and some OCs that might pop up randomly.

**Hollowfiedme1: **I am actually going give Zangetsu to Shiro and create a new one for Ichigo. I was thinking some sort of wind elemental zanpakto but if you have any ideas please feel free to share!

**TealEyedBeing: **I wanted them to be close, this story is really fun to write! In the show I love Shiro, insanity and all, but I kinda wish he was a good guy so now I can make him a good guy _and _work together with Ichi!

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"Here my voice oh Lord. Help your humble child know why she was born! And if your divine will wishes it summon her back to your side! I await your—AGH!" Rukia exclaims as the twins shout, "Jeez, will you shut up?!"

"What is your guys' problem? I am studying your language!" Rukia defends.

"Yeah; well you're off by several hundred years!" Ichigo explains.

"So tell us, just how long are you going to follow us around?" Shiro questions.

"Until you two accept your calling as a shinigami." She says coolly.

"Yeah right!" they exclaim. "Whatever." Ichigo says as he walks away.

They all of a sudden hear screeching breaks and rush towards the direction it came from. They find Orihime getting up from the side of a crosswalk.

"Orihime," Ichigo says in surprise. "What just happened?"

"Did you just get hit by that car?" Shiro asks the orange haired girl.

"Maybe," she says evasively.

"You gonna be alright?" Ichigo asks.

Orihime jumps up and says brightly, "Yup, it was just a little bump on my head! Don't worry, I'm fine!"

Shiro whispers to Ichigo, "Maybe that bump on her head is worse than she thought…" earning him a jab in the ribs and a "Shut it!" from the younger of the two.

Rukia is quiet as she stares at Orihime's calf where a giant shadowy bruise is showing beneath her skirt. Shiro and Ichigo notice at the same time and the older one asks, "Is that bruise from getting hit?"

Orihime looks down for the first time, "Oh, I guess so; it only hurts a little bit though! Don't worry."

"Do you want one of us to walk you home?" Ichigo asks.

Orihime blushes deeply and says a little too quickly, "Oh, no, I'm fine!"

"Alright, I guess as long as you're okay then…" Shiro says as he begins to walk away.

Orihime then notices Rukia standing behind the two identical twins. "Rukia?" she asks.

"Yes, who are you?" she says a bit rudely. Ichigo turns to her and says quietly, "Her name is Orihime! She's in the same class as you you dolt!" "Yeah, get your head outta yer ass." Shiro says.

"Oh of course; Orihime how are you?" Rukia suddenly says, giving a small curtsy.

Orihime, a little surprised, curtsies back and answers, "Oh, I'm great!"

"Well, by the looks of it you've gone shopping!" Rukia points out.

Orihime looks a little confused but then realization dawns on her and she exclaims, "Oh that's right, dinner!" she picks up her bag and says happily, "My leeks, bananas, peanut butter, and bean jam seem to have survived too!" she chuckles.

"Yuck, I don't even wanna think of what she might make with that." Shiro whispers to Ichigo. His brother nods in return.

"Oh well, I better be going!" Orihime says suddenly. She gives a small wave before she turns and walks across the intersection towards her house.

"Yeesh, she needs to be more careful…" Ichigo points out. Rukia stays silent as she ponders the strange bruise on the girl's leg again.

Later as the twins head home, with Rukia still tailing them, she suddenly says, "So that girl…"

The younger of the two turns toward her, "Oh, you mean Orihime?"

"Yes, are you close to her?" Rukia asks.

"No, we don't really know her or talk that much." Shiro answers.

"But she's a friend of a buddy of ours in the neighborhood so we see her around." Ichigo adds.

"Although…" Shiro trails off. "Yes?" Rukia urges.

"About three years back or so her older brother Sora was in a terrible accident and died at our clinic." Ichigo explains. "What?" Rukia asks quietly.

"He was in a car wreck; he was the only family she had." Shiro continues.

"We never realized that she was the girl we saw that day." Ichigo states.

"We only found that out recently." Shiro adds.

"How in tune to the spirit world were you?" Rukia questions.

"Huh, oh, well not as much as we are now…" Ichigo replies.

"It's only recently that we've been able to fully see and communicate with spirits." Shiro pipes up.

_'Just as I thought.'_ Rukia thinks silently.

"Why? What's up? What are you thinking?" Shiro asks curiously.

"Nothing." She answers simply and continues on ahead. "See you later."

"Huh, where are you going?" Ichigo asks.

"Home." Rukia responds.

"Where's that?" Shiro asks, slightly suspicious.

"Do you honestly want to know that?" she asks looking back.

"Guess not…" Shiro answers.

She continues on her way as Shiro and Ichigo go on their way towards home.

At Orihime's house later that evening Tatsuki arrives at her door carrying a bowl. She rings the bell and waits for her friend. "Oh hello Tatsuki!" Orihime says brightly when she opens the door.

"Hi, I brought you some stew from my mom; she said you might want it. It's stewed potatoes and roast beef." Her dark haired friend explains.

They go inside and sit at the small table in Orihime's living room. As she opens the lid on the bowl the aromatic steam is released and she inhales deeply. "It smells delicious Tatsuki!" Orihime compliments.

The two girls are absorbed in talking and eating that they don't notice the pink bear behind them on a shelf above the shrine dedicated to Sora fall to the floor with a gash in its fluffy head.

Shiro and Ichigo are doing their usual homework routine that evening with Ichigo doing the work and Shiro copying when Yuzu opens the door and asks, "Ichigo, Shiro, do either of you know what happened to my yellow striped pajamas?"

"Yuz' knocking would be nice." Shiro says.

"Well I'm sorry I asked," Yuzu pouts. "You two have been so mean since you entered high school!" she complains.

"Have not!" Shiro protests loudly.

"Sorry Yuzu, we don't know where your pajamas went." Ichigo says in a softer tone over his older twin.

"That is so weird; I'm missing a dress too!" their sister says, more to herself than them.

"Why do you feel the need to ask us about every little thing? Do we look like we care?" Shiro asks, exasperated.

"Fiiine," Yuzu sighs as she closes the door. "Good night!"

Rukia is lying on a small mattress in a dark room staring at the ceiling. There is s sudden beeping and she pulls a silver cell phone out, flipping it open and looking at it. Her eyes widen.

In the twins' room they hear a beeping noise. "What the hell is that?" Shiro asks.

"How should I know? And must you swear all the time?" Ichigo replies.

"Shiro, Ichigo!!" Rukia exclaims as she shoves open the door to their closet and jumps out.

"AGH!" the brothers shout in surprise, "What are you doing in our closet?" they ask her.

"No time, just move!" she yells as she shoves them off their bed. The move was in the nick of time because at that moment a shadowy portal opened and a snake like Hollow entered. It's over sized hand crushed Ichigo's bed as it howled.

Rukia yanks on her gloves and shoves the boys out of their bodies. "Remember to aim for the head!" she reminds them.

"Gotcha." They respond. Ichigo leaps up and swings his sword down toward the white mask covering the beast's face. His sword drags across the ceiling a bit and when he aims for the head the Hollow catches it and holds the sword back. Ichigo pushes back as hard as he can and cuts the mask. "Too shallow!" Rukia calls out. The mask cracks and Ichigo sees the creatures face; he falls back in astonishment as Shiro rushes in then and slices into its arm. The Hollow screams and retreats into another portal.

Shiro goes to Ichigo who is still staring at the place where the Hollow was. Shiro waves a hand in front of his face, "Yo, you still in there bro?" he asks a bit puzzled at his twin's strange behavior.

"I saw its face," Ichigo says quietly. "It was Sora, Orihime's older brother."

"Are you positive?" Rukia questions him. He gives a silent nod. "Then we need to get to Orihime's house. He would head there next."

Shiro turns to her with a questioning look on his face, "Why would he go after Orihime; she's his sister!"

"That is exactly why; Hollows were once human, no different from any other soul. But if they regret or despair over something or resist the Konso and linger on they will lose their hearts and become the monster you have seen." Rukia explains.

Two pairs of eyes widen at this. "There just mindless monsters though aren't they?" Ichigo asks in almost a whisper. Rukia's eyes narrow down a bit and she says sternly, "That is exactly what they are now. They have no hearts anymore therefore they feel nothing. Hollows go after Plus souls because they want to fill that void and satisfy the hunger they feel. They go after the people they loved the most first."

"So we need to get to Orihime! Let's go Ichi!" Shiro says. He grabs his brother's hand and drags him out the window and they start running.

"Wait you fools!" Rukia shouts after them as she dashes to catch up.

At Orihime's house Tatsuki suddenly shouts, "Whaaaaat? And they didn't even volunteer to walk you home!"

Orihime, who had just finished telling her friend about the accident earlier that day, blushes a bit and replies quietly, "Well Ichigo did ask if I wanted one of them to walk me home but I said I was fine."

"Orihimeee; when a guy asks if you want him to walk you home you should say yes! Especially if it's Ichigo Kurosaki, I know you like him." Tatsuki teases slightly.

"Oh, well…" Orihime trails off as she gets caught up in her thoughts. Suddenly she starts clawing the air and shouting, "Stop right there, I'll pound you flat you bullies!"

"Orihime, snap out of it, you're daydreaming again!" Tatsuki tries but fails. Orihime and Tatsuki both stop their talking as they feel a rumbling through the small apartment.

"What was that?" Orihime asks timidly. Tatsuki replies nervously, "I don't know."

Orihime turns around and notices the pink plushy bear on the floor then. "Oh no Enryuu fell down!" She picks up the small toy and gasps, "How did you get this big rip in your head?"

Tatsuki is looking toward the kitchen still but turns as she hears another gasp from the girl next to her on the floor. She is looking at her hand which is covered in a red liquid, "Is this blood?" she asks with a tremor in her voice.

Suddenly an over sized hand shoots through the bear and Orihime's chest! Neither girl saw what happened though. Tatsuki only sees her friend suddenly fall lifelessly to the floor. She leans down to check on her when she is thrust across the room and hits the wall. She feels a pain in her shoulder and when she draws her hand back it is covered in blood. "What is going on?" she asks herself.

Meanwhile Ichigo and Shiro, now with Rukia who managed to catch up to them, are sprinting towards Orihime's house. "So how did you know that that Hollow would go after Orihime?" Shiro asks.

"Remember that bruise we saw on her leg earlier today? She said it was from the car but I have seen marks like that before many times. That mark could only come from a Hollow." She points out grimly.

"So you think her brother has already tried to kill her once and is trying to do so again?" Ichigo guesses.

"It is quite possible. Since it couldn't get one or both of you it's logical to assume he is going after her." Rukia replies. Shiro and Ichigo run a little faster after they hear this.

Back at Orihime's apartment Tatsuki is thrown to the floor. She sits up again, clutching her shoulder, and looks around fearfully for the something that she can't see. She sees just a faint blurry outline in the air, "Something's here but I don't see anything!" she says to herself quietly. She is suddenly pinned to the floor, her hand holding back the invisible force on top of her.

"What's going on?" she asks, slightly panicking. "Who's there?" her breath start to come in short panicked gasps.

Orihime is huddled up against the t.v. hugging her knees to her chest in fear of the monster she sees over top her friend. It is a charcoal black and crimson color snake like creature with a white bone mask covering its face. Trembling she thinks, _'What is that? What's going on? And what is it doing to Tatsuki!'_

The Hollow's tail moves and Orihime sees a body lying on the floor behind it. The person has long orange hair wearing a purple shirt and yellow flowered skirt just like her. With a sudden shock she realizes she is looking at herself!

_'That's me, but how?'_ she then notices the chain coming from her body and attached to her chest. _'What is this and where did it come from?'_ she thinks as she tugs on it. _'I can't breathe!'_

"Agh!" Tatsuki gasps as she suddenly has a hand choking off her air supply.

"Tatsuki," Orihime cries out. She stands up while saying to herself, "I can't just sit here, I have to help her!" She runs towards the monster and throws herself against the arm strangling her friend. The hand lets go of her friend's neck and she stays like she is for a moment trying to get her lost breath back. Orihime lays a hand on Tatsuki's arm and asks her worriedly, "Tatsuki are you okay?"

Said girl feels the hand on her arm and shakes it off crawling back to the wall and waving her hand in front of her shouting, "Stay away!"

"What are you screaming about Tatsuki? It's just me!" Orihime cries. "What's wrong?"

"It's no use," a deep eerie voice says. "She can't hear us, she can't even see us!"

Tatsuki suddenly slumps to the floor unconscious. Orihime calls out her name but her friend is out cold form the shock. Orihime turns back to the monster then and asks, "What not; and who are you?"

The creature looks at her and says, "That makes me sad Orihime, have you forgotten my voice? Can't you tell?"

"What are you talking about?" she asks fearfully, shrinking back as the Hollow comes nearer. "How do you know my name?"

"It makes me sad Orihime; very, very sad!" the creature backs up then lunges toward her with his claws aimed for her. She shuts her eyes and holds up her hands in anticipation for the blow but it never comes. She opens her eyes to see Ichigo blocking the huge clawed hand with an extremely large, long sword. He shoves the monsters hand back and Shiro says, "We're the ones you're really after, leave her alone and fight us!"

But the Hollow just screams as it disappears into another portal. The twins curse and Orihime stares at them in amazement, surprise, and a little confusion.

Shiro notices Tatsuki then and curses again under his breath. Ichigo looks over to see why his brother is swearing and sees then sees the reason as he spots a head of dark spiky hair. "Damn Tatsuki, how did you get caught up in this?" he whispers to himself.

"Ichigo, Shiro, thank you for rescuing us from that thing. But where did you come from?" a voice asks behind them. They turn around and Shiro says, "Whoa, hold the phone. How the hell can she see us?"

"Should I not be able to?" she asks, puzzled. Then Ichigo notices the chain on her chest leading to her body behind them and he gasps. He remembers then something Rukia had said once…

**[Flashback]**

_"Shinigami are spirit beings and as such no ordinary humans will be able to see you. Only other spirit beings can see you."_

**[End Flashback]**

"Then she's…" he trails off as a rough deep voice interrupts, "That's right, she's a spirit being now. In other words, Orihime is dead!" they see who the speaker is as the Hollow from earlier appears again from a cloud of fog. Shiro lets out a yell and runs toward the Hollow, he swings but it dodges around and then grabs the chain connecting Orihime and her body, dragging her away. Ichigo swings his sword, aiming to cut off the tail to distract it but the Hollow brings its tail around and, hitting him in the stomach, sends him flying through the window. Ichigo stops himself and looks back to see the Hollow with Orihime in his fist. He tightens his grip and Orihime cries out in pain.

"Stay back." He warns, and the suddenly he whips his tail out and slams Ichigo into the pavement below. Rukia, who was standing in the street shouts, "Ichigo!" and runs towards him while the Hollow slithers back inside the apartment through the hole he just made.

Rukia checks on Ichigo, but he is unconscious. Shiro sees his brother lying in the street unconscious and immediately gets pissed. He jumps into the house again and shouts, "Hey ugly! You think you can just hurt my brother and get away with it?!" he yells as he rushes at the monster and proceeds to whale on the Hollow. "Don't you know why big brothers were born first? So they could protect their younger brothers and sisters!" Shiro shouts as he continues to beat back the monster.

The Hollow drops Orihime and she crawls away and watches as Shiro fights. They wind up in the street a little ways away from Rukia and the still unconscious Ichigo. The Hollow gets in a good hit and Shiro falls back, Hollow Sora is about to land the fatal blow but Orihime steps in and stops him, she is hugging the Hollow.

Shiro gapes at her, "Orihime, what are you doing?" he asks.

"I know this isn't his doing. My brother would never do things like this, he was a gentle person!" she says with tears in her eyes.

"Orihime…when did you figure it out?" Rukia asks. Orihime looks over at her in surprise but then answers, "When he knew my name, and he asked me if I had forgotten his voice, and I saw his eyes. I knew it was my big brother." She explains.

"Ori—hime," he struggles to get out; suddenly the mask shatters and Sora's full face is seen, his eyes are sad but he smiles gently at her. "I am so sorry, Orihime." He then sees the small turquoise flower pins in her hair and gasps. "Those hairpins…" he starts.

"You remember the argument we had the day you gave them to me? I was upset because I thought they didn't look grown-up enough for me. That was the day that you were in the accident." She tells him with tears rolling down her cheeks. "I'm sorry Sora."

Sora smiles at her again and then reaches over and, taking Ichigo's zanpakto holds it to his chest in preparation to stab himself. Orihime gasps, "Sora, what are you doing?"

Rukia holds her back, "Don't, he knows what he's doing, once you turn into a Hollow you can never go back to what you once were. If he is cleansed then he will go to a more peaceful place."

Sora smiles at his sister again as he plunges the blade into his chest. "I love you Orihime." He whispers as he fades away eventually leaving behind a purple butterfly that flies off into the night.

Orihime falls to the ground and sobs.

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This was a bit longer than the others ^^ Thanks so much for all your reviews so far people! Chapter four is already in progress and should be done soon! Please press the little button down there, it won't bite!


	4. Chapter 4

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Bleach!

Lucky day today! I am updating twice! ^^

**Impstar:** I am purposely sticking pretty close to the manga and the show. I am telling the story how it would be if Ichigo had Shiro as his twin instead of his inner enemy. I make a few additions and cut outs in the story though. So don't worry, I'll try to keep it interesting ^^ Thank you for the advice!

**Hollowfiedme1:** Thank you so much! I really look forward to readin more of your reviews, I always smile.

**TealEyedBeing:** I love the idea of the protective older brother and I made Shiro the older twin because I thought Ichigo could use someone to protect him sometimes, instead of him taking everything on his own all the time. I hope to hear more from you!

**BadyGuz:** I am sticking mostly to the Bleach plot. I am actually still debating the Vizard idea. I can't decide if I want just one of the twins to be a Vizard or both. I do like the Vizards though, it's really cool. I might not have either of them be Vizards, but they will have some other sort of power that they can use other than their shinigami abilities. I hope you like the rest of the story!

* * *

Ichigo walks into his and Shiro's room with a plate that holds two rice balls. He walks to the closet and knocks on it while shouting, "Hey open up, I brought you some food!" When he gets no response he bangs on the door again, beginning to lose patience. "Rukia open up, do you want breakfast or not?" he yells, then flings the door open and finds Rukia not even there. He sighs and puts the plate on the desk as he then walks over to his brother's bed.

"Shiro wake up you moron, it's almost time for school!" he says as he shakes his shoulder.

Shiro mumbles an unintelligible response into his pillow. Ichigo sighs, says "Hate to do this but you leave me no choice." then walks downstairs.

"Dad, I can't get Shiro to wake up." Ichigo says as he comes into the kitchen. His dad perks up at this and he says in his usual boisterous way, "Daddy will go help Lil' Berry wake up his big brother then!" He then grabs Ichigo, despite his protests, and drags him back upstairs to the twins' room. When they enter he lets go and leaps into the air to land a kick to Shiro's head. Shiro, even half asleep, manages to roll out of the way and connect his foot to his father's face, sending him flying into the wall very near to the window.

"Dammit, why can't you let me alone for once ya old Goat Face?" he growls. He then notices Ichigo standing by the door looking nervous and guilty, though no one else would be able to tell, and absent mindedly rubbing his arm where his insane father had gripped it a little too tightly. He decides to get him later and gets up to get ready for another day at the hell hole called school.

Ichigo is putting on his watch when Shiro hears him gasp. He glances over and sees his brother staring at his watch. "Ichigo, what is it?" he asks, a little concerned.

Ichigo is silent and just turns his wrist so his snowy twin can see the date. Seeing it, Shiro lets out a small gasp also and whispers, "So it's come again already."

Ichigo just nods and heads out of their room grabbing his bag on the way out and walking back down the stairs. Shiro hurriedly finishes dressing and rushes after him. He dashes down the stairs, shouts a quick goodbye to his other family members and bolts out the door to catch up with Ichigo.

The Kurosaki brothers arrive several minutes before the bell and as they walk in the classroom Orihime greets them cheerfully. Ichigo smiles and waves back, Shiro just sighs at his twin's actions while Orihime looks confused. She turns to Tatsuki with a questioning look in her eyes and Tatsuki lets out a sigh of her own before she answers her friend's unspoken query.

"If you have any business you want to take care of today with Ichigo or Shiro I suggest you do it while you can. I bet you they won't even show up tomorrow."

"Why do you say that?" Orihime asks.

"Tomorrow is the day their mother died. It'll be six years now since she passed away." Tatsuki explains.

Orihime looks over sadly at Ichigo and Shiro who are laughing and carrying on as if nothing is wrong. "But they look so happy, how could they be so sad?" she wonders.

"They only act like that to hide what they're really feeling, especially Ichigo. It affected him the most because he was there when it happened." Orihime gasps in astonishment and casts another pitying look in the younger Kurosaki twin's direction. Then the bells rings and Tatsuki says she'll explain it more later.

After school as Rukia is walking home she sees Tatsuki and Orihime sitting on a bench together but the river talking. As she passes by she hears them mention Ichigo and Shiro and she stops to listen.

"Ichigo was walking home with his mother when it happened." The dark haired girl was explaining. "He cried out suddenly and rushed toward the river, not far from this spot actually. It was raining, and his mother, Masaki Kurosaki, rushed after him because the river was very full. No one knows what really happened to her. Ichigo just woke up and there was blood everywhere and his mother was lying still on top of him. When he tried to wake her she wouldn't budge."

Orihime looks like she might start crying but continues to listen to the sad story.

"Shiro and Isshin, the brothers' dad, were worried when Masaki and Ichigo were unusually late and went to look for them. They found Ichigo sitting next to his mother's body shivering in the cold rain. He was just sitting there with his knees hugged to his chest and staring at nothing. His father immediately called an ambulance when he saw his wife's unmoving body and the blood." Tatsuki took a deep breath and let it go before she continued. "When they arrived they told them that she was dead and that Ichigo was just in shock. Isshin took Ichigo and Shiro home, for several days after Ichigo wouldn't eat anything and wouldn't talk to anyone. He just wandered around like he was lost. He and Shiro were very close to their mother and Shiro was taking it hard too, only he showed it in anger instead. Now every year on June 17 they don't come to school, they go to see their mother's grave."

Rukia couldn't believe what she had just heard, it sounded so unreal. She decided she would follow the Kurosaki family the next day and find out more if possible.

The next day, as Tatsuki had predicted, neither Shiro nor Ichigo were at school and the new girl Rukia was missing too.

Isshin, Shiro, Ichigo, Yuzu, and Karin were currently walking up a very long, steep hill path in the Karakura cemetery heading to Masaki Kurosaki's grave-site to pay their respects for this year. Isshin was being his usual self and was trying, and failing, to cheer up his children. Karin got fed up and shouted, "Would you shut up already Goat Face!" Her father then started the waterworks and cried, "My children are so cruel to their poor daddy!"

"It's okay daddy, we don't hate you at all." Yuzu comforts. The kids' father brightens immediately and rushes toward his light brown-haired daughter to smother her in one of his hugs; Karin gets to him first and gives a kick in the face strong enough to make him trip and roll all the way back down the hill.

All of a sudden the older twin boys see someone they really didn't want to see; Rukia was shouting at them and waving. Shiro gaped at her for a second but got over it and then, grabbing Ichigo's hand and calling a quick explanation that she was a classmate, ran up to her and yanked her away too. Yuzu turned to Karin with confusion written all over her face but Karin just shrugged and continued on with her sister following behind.

Shiro reached a path lined with bright green trees on either side and stopped, let go of the hands he was holding and then turned to Rukia, eyes almost blazing, and asked harshly, "What are doing here?"

Ichigo, knowing her really shouldn't mess with his brother when he was like this, plucked up his courage and tried to calm Shiro's wrath toward the short ex-shinigami. "Shiro, I am sure she has a good explanation, maybe you should wait to hear it before you try to bite her head off…?"

Shiro looks at his brother coldly but something in his expression makes him calm down slightly and he turns back to Rukia to present his question again, a little cooler, "I asked you what you were doing here."

"I overheard a conversation between Tatsuki and Orihime yesterday on the way back to your house. Tatsuki was explaining to Orihime the story of what happened today six years ago…the story of your mother's death." Rukia explained.

Ichigo's eyes widen and he gasps in surprise. "Wh-What?" he stutters out. Shiro puts a hand on his brother's shoulder and asks, "How much do you know about it?" his voice carrying a chilly undertone, he did not like talking about this subject. He liked talking about it least of all around Ichigo but right then he had no choice. He listened as Rukia recounted all she had heard yesterday, he was frankly a bit surprised at how much she knew. She knew pretty much the whole story, except for the reason why Ichigo had run towards the river in the first place; that detail he had only shared with him because he didn't want to seem crazy to anyone.

Ichigo wasn't really paying attention to the one way conversation, he heard a rustling and when he turned to find the source of the noise he froze. _'It…It can't be her! But it is…it's that girl I saw!'_ he thought. The girl started to walk away and Ichigo wandered blindly after her, he didn't know why he was, his feet seemed to be moving on their own and he couldn't stop. The girl led him to a big clearing up hill a ways from where he was. That was when he saw a flash of brown hair and the back of his head exploded in pain then his last thought before he lost consciousness was, _'Now that was stupid of me, Shiro is gonna be mad at me.'_ Then his world went black.

Rukia had just finished her telling of what she had heard and voiced a suspicion she had put together from what she had heard, "You know it is quite possible your mother was killed by a Hollow."

Shiro got really angry then, "No it couldn't have! Not everything mysterious has to do with a Hollow alright? Why do you always assume it's Hollow this and Hollow that? You really tick me off!" he turns to leave and says, "Come on Ichigo." When he gets no response he looks around and notices that Ichigo was nowhere to be found. He suddenly gets a very bad feeling in his stomach and calls out louder, "Ichigo, where are you? If this is a joke it is not funny!" Again he receives only silence for an answer. Shiro is now very worried and on the verge of slight panic. He has always been able to sense Ichigo when he was nearby but now he felt nothing…_'Wait, I do feel something, why is it so faint?'_ he thinks.

When Shiro suddenly runs off uphill Rukia calls after him, "Shiro wait!" and follows after him. There were gray storm clouds rolling in fast as they ran upwards.

Shiro reaches the clearing and freezes at the scene before him, he sees a patch of orange in the fist of a giant, brown, hairy Hollow with a single antennae coming from the top of its head and coming down in front of it. What shocks him then is what he sees on the end of the end of the antennae, it is a girl, a girl that matches the exact description his brother had given him of the girl he had seen by the river. She had on a purple poncho; her hair was black and cut short, just past her ears.

"Ah, so the brat has a twin, hmm? This is interesting indeed." Says a sudden voice.

_'It can speak?'_ Shiro asks himself. He hears Rukia come up behind him but doesn't pay any attention as he sees the face of the person in the Hollow's grasp and gasps. The monster was holding his unconscious brother!

"You bastard!" he yells. "What did you do to him?"

"It was quite easy to lure him here. He was in such shock when he saw my little bait, his expression was priceless!" the Hollow laughed and continued. "He was so busy following it he didn't notice until it was too late that it was a trap. Stupid boy, he should learn to pay more attention. His mother was an especially sweet one all those years ago. I was going to eat him but I have a soft spot for the women."

"Grand Fisher." Rukia whispered in shock.

She might've been quiet but Shiro still heard her and he was pissed beyond measure now. "Rukia," he ground out through gritted teeth. She understood immediately and put on her glove, shoving him out of his body. He appeared in his shinigami clothes with his over sized zanpakto. The rain clouds decided it would be a good time to release their load of water and it started pouring suddenly. Shiro charged at the Hollow he now knew as Grand Fisher. 'Rukia was right then, our mother was killed by a Hollow.'

He then slid to a sudden halt in the wet grass as the lure on the end of Grand Fisher's antennae stopped in front of him. It looked different now though, it wasn't the little girl anymore, it was his mother!

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Mwahaha! Cliffy! Ichigo and Shiro join me next chapter and you get to see my zanpakto! I love all the positive feedback i am getting for this story it really makes me happy to write more and keep going! Constructive criticism is welcome and any ideas you feel like shouting out is awesome! I would love to read them! Please Review! It makes the button sad when you don't click it.


	5. Chapter 5

**::Previously:: **The Kurosaki family goes to visit their deceased mother's grave. Rukia shows up and draws Shiro and Ichigo away. Ichigo is then lured away by a Hollow and captured. Shiro finds out the same Hollow murdered their mother and is now about to beat his ass!

**DISCLAIMER:** This has been in the previous 4 chapters already. I think everyone knows now that Bleach does not belong to me : (

Ichigo: Yup, and aren't we glad you don't.

Me: Don't get me mad Ichigo or you shall feel the wrath of Koori Kaze (Ice Wind)!

Shiro: I'd do as she says, trust me, doesn't feel good.

Me: See Shiro isn't so hard to control is he fears you. You could learn a few things from me Ichi.

Ichigo: -sighs- Whatever.

Me: -fumes- Bite, Koori Kaze!

Shiro: Uh-oh. -ducks behind couch- Now ya done it Strawberry.

Ichigo: Oops. –runs away-

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**[Flashback]**

_Ichigo and his mother were walking home from the dojo he used to go to, it was raining. A truck came by and splashed water all over him._

_"Oh that careless driver!" his mother exclaimed, she then took out her handkerchief and cleaned his face. "There you go, all clean now."_

_Ichigo smiled a huge grin and then asked, "Mom, can I hold your hand please?"_

_She looked down at him, held out her slender hand and smiling, said, "Of course you can."_

_Ichigo loved his mother very much, he and his brother always felt so safe around her. Back then Ichigo and Shiro didn't know they were seeing ghosts or spirits, they couldn't tell the difference between the dead and the living. When Ichigo saw the girl by the swelling river he didn't realize she was a spirit. He saw her about to fall in and gasped, "Oh no, I have to save her!"_

_He dashed down the shallow embankment and towards the girl. His mother saw him running but couldn't see the girl, she cried, "Ichigo, no!" and, dropping her umbrella, she rushed after her orange haired son._

_Next thing Ichigo knows he wakes with his mother's cold body on top of him, the rain still pouring down on top of them. He saw the blood surrounding them and almost panicked. He struggled out from under his mom and shook her shoulder. "Mom…mom wake up, we have to get home." She didn't move except from his shaking. He tried again, "Mom come on, wake up!" when he got silence as a response once again he began to cry, his salty tears mixing with the rain and streaming down his small face._

_He suddenly remembered when his dad had told him his name meant 'he who protects', he had wanted to protect his mother and sisters, even his older brother Shiro. He realized then that he had failed; he had let his mother be killed. "She's dead. How will I explain to them all what happened?" He whispered tearfully to himself. "I failed and it's entirely my fault."_

_He sat in the rain for so long he lost track of time, it was starting to get darker but he didn't notice. He was numb, he didn't feel the cold and he didn't feel the pain, he was just…numb. He hardly even noticed when his father and older brother came running down the short grassy embankment he was caught in his own little world of nothingness._

**[End Flashback]  
**

"Ichigo…Ichigo," his brother was calling his name but he couldn't answer him. "Ichigo…Ichigo! Ichigo, come on! Wake up!"

Wait, that wasn't his brother, it was someone else. _'Who is that?'_ he thinks. _'They sound familiar…'_

His eyes slowly flutter open and he finds himself lying on the rain soaked ground with Rukia leaning over him looking worried. The pain in his head comes back to him full force in an instant, "Ow, feels like I got hit by a brick." He groans.

Rukia smiles a little in relief but then jerks her head in another direction when she hears a grunt and someone hitting the ground. Ichigo bolts upright but then almost falls back down from the wave of dizziness he feels. He orients himself and then sees Shiro, covered in scratches and small cuts and a gash in his side, fighting a brown, hairy Hollow.

"What's going on?" he asks Rukia. She looks over to him in confusion for a moment but then explains what happened.

"Shiro found you up here, being held in the Hollow's grasp, his name is Grand Fisher. He is the Hollow who killed your mother those six years ago." She says solemnly and continues grimly. "When Grand Fisher told him this he got unbelievably mad, even madder than when he saw you knocked out in the beast's hand. I helped him transform into a shinigami and he rushed towards Fisher but the lure that he uses, like he did on you those years ago, he changed it to look like your mother." Ichigo got mad at this, how dare that scum use his mother's image like that! He let Rukia continue in her explanation, struggling not to hear or see the gruesome fight going on behind her.

"He managed to get rid of the puppet of your mother and started fighting the Grand Fisher. That was a little over five minutes ago." She finished. Ichigo nodded then looked up at her, determination burning like a fire in his brown eyes. "I want to help, he's my brother, and I am not going to leave him alone like I did my mother!"

Rukia's eyes widen at this outburst but she reluctantly agrees and shoves her gloved hand through his head, releasing him in his shinigami uniform.

Shiro was fighting his hardest but the pain of his wounds and the worry over his brother, also the shock of learning the truth of his mother's death was getting to him; he wasn't concentrating fully. Grand Fisher used that to his advantage and managed another good hit that pierced his right shoulder and left thigh. He lets out a grunt of pain and falls to the ground; the hideous Hollow is about to hit him with the final blow, Shiro shuts his eyes in anticipation of the hit but it never comes. He opens his eyes and sees Ichigo standing there blocking the hit with his own zanpakto.

"Ichigo!" he says is surprise and relief. His twin smiles at him and teases, "Can't let you have all the fun and glory now can I?"

Shiro chuckles grimly and replies, "Couldn't really help it seeing as you let yourself get conked over the head but this over grown fur ball."

Ichigo glares lightly at him but then turns back to the Hollow who is laughing and glares daggers at him. "What are you laughing at you bastard?" He growls. "People don't usually laugh before they die!" to punctuate his sentence he jerks his sword back suddenly and then leaps up and lands a deep hit on Grand Fisher's left shoulder.

The Hollow lets out a painful roar, but Ichigo has made him angry now and he brings his right hand from behind Ichigo in an attempt to slice his back. His blow is stopped as Shiro manages to get up and cut off his hand. Panting he says, "There are two of us if you remember."

The two brothers leap back for space then run together at their mother's murderer, when they get close Ichigo leaps over and lands behind him. Grand Fisher is momentarily distracted by Ichigo's move, but a moment is all Shiro needed to bring his blade down towards Grand Fisher's mask. Unfortunately, he realizes just in time and blocks the attack by bringing the lure to take the hit.

Fisher then kicks Ichigo backwards and jumps away from Shiro, he laughs and threatens, "We'll see each other again sometime in the future boys. When that time comes I will certainly enjoy it."

He opens one of the shadowy portals to the Hollow realm and retreats into it.

Shiro heads over to Ichigo and helps him up. "You okay?" he asks. Ichigo nods but then winces, "Head still hurts, he hit me pretty hard. I might have a concussion."

"Come on, let's get outta here, we can't do anything more here anyway. Besides, Yuzu, Karin, and dad are still waiting…that is if dad has made it back up the hill yet."

Ichigo laughs as he remembers the kick Karin had given their dad earlier. "Yeah, but are you okay? You look dreadful!" Ichigo looks closer at him and sees a cut across his cheek, the place where he was stabbed in the side and in his thigh, also the gash in his shoulder; there are several other bruises and cuts on his arms and torso too.

"This is going to be one heck of a patch job when we get home…" Ichigo says half jokingly.

Later Ichigo and Shiro are standing in front of their mother's grave, it's still raining. Their dad walks up and puts a hand on each of their shoulders. Shiro hides a slight wince. "Yuzu and Karin are waiting in the car." Isshin tells them. "She was such a wonderful woman, your mother loved you very much; all of you."

Ichigo suddenly pulls away from his father's grip and looks at him and his brother then asks, "How can you not blame me? It's my fault, I couldn't protect her!" he cries. Shiro just looks at him gently while Isshin asks, "Why would we blame you at all Ichigo?"

Ichigo wasn't expecting this and doesn't know what to say. His father continues, "I have no reason to blame you and even if I did I wouldn't blame you because then I would never be able to face your mother again."

Shiro then voices his reason, "I don't blame you because I know it is not your fault and besides, I see how you punish yourself over it already. So why add to the burden and cause you more pain?"

Ichigo stares at them with eyes wide in surprise and shock. His father embraces him then says, "Come on; let's go home."

Ichigo nods and lets himself be led away by his father, Shiro following behind.

_'I hope you can learn to share your burdens with others in the future Ichigo. You have no idea how much it hurts us to see you always try to take it all yourself, especially me.'_ Shiro thinks.


	6. Chapter 6

Me: Hello! I enjoyed all the reviews I received in the last chapters. I wish more people would review, I am ecstatic that you add it to your alerts and favorites but I would love to hear your actual opinion of the story so far…

Shiro: Cheer up Misty; you still have several reviewers already.

Me: -smiles- Yup! Thanks Shiro! Oh, by the way, where's Ichigo?

Shiro: -sighs- He's still recovering from the whooping you gave him last chapter… you got him pretty good.

Me: heh heh…oops. Let's hope he isn't too upset about it.

Shiro: -scoffs-

Me: Just shush and do the disclaimer for me…please?

Shiro: Fine. Misutii does not own Bleach.

Me: That's right. I would also like to give a huge thank you to Holowfiedme1 for helping me create a new zanpakto for Ichigo!

Now on with the sixth chapter where we meet Uryuu Ishida!

* * *

Shiro, Ichigo, Keigo, Mizurio, Chad, Tatsuki, and Orihime were all standing in front of a big white poster with a long list of names. They were exam scores for that semester.

"Well, I am sure none of us got in the top 50 so we're safe!" Keigo was saying excitedly. He then notices the names at places 23 and 24, Ichigo and Shiro Kurosaki. "Whaaaa?" he exclaims. "How did you get such good grades?"

"We study, you should try it sometime." The brothers tell him. Ichigo adds, "We already get enough grief for our hair, why add to that by getting bad grades."

Mizuiro nods and agrees. Keigo nods in understanding then something hits him, "So all those times you said you were busy you were really holed up studying like a common nerd!" he backs away from them but then suddenly pops back with a pair of glasses on and teases, "Should we get you some authentic nerd goggles?"

Shiro just punches their eccentric friend in the face, breaking the glasses and giving him a nose bleed. Keigo jumps right back up though and clings to Chad saying, "At least Chad isn't a nerd like you guys!"

Chad simply points to the thirteenth spot on the list and his friends see his name there.

Keigo loses it then and exclaims, "I had no idea I was friends with such geeks and brainiacs! I can't be seen with you guys!" he rapidly backs up with Mizurio following then they turn and run down the hall in the opposite direction.

"They'll be back." Tatsuki says simply.

"Well none of got first place we know that much." Ichigo points out.

"Who's Ishida?" he asks at the same time as his brother.

"He's in our class." Tatsuki explains. The brothers freeze. Orihime, confused, asks, "What's wrong you two?"

Tatsuki grabs her arm and starts leading her toward class while saying, "Oh it's nothing, those two just have an uncanny ability to forget people's names and faces. "

"Not our fault…" they mutter bitterly, they turn and head towards their class together.

On their way to lunch later Rukia suddenly rushes up to them and, grabbing their arms, drags them away from the group of friends. When she stops she pulls on her gloves and shoves them out of their bodies and into their shinigami uniforms. "We have a Hollow nearby, come on." She says then rushes in the direction the pager indicates.

When they arrive however there is only a very fat man's spirit wearing glasses, a green tank top, and blue pants sitting there trembling in the corner of the alley where they stand. "Okay…" Ichigo says slowly. "Where is this Hollow you were talking about?" he asks. Rukia looks down at her phone and gives a look of confusion but looks up at the boys and answers, "It's not here anymore. It's just gone."

"That's just great," Shiro says sarcastically, he turns to the spirit then and says, "Konso time I suppose then."

"Wait, what's a Konso," the spirit panics. "Keep that sword away from me! No, n-"

There is a bright blue light and the man disappears while a butterfly flutters away in his place.

Above the trio a mysterious figure stands on the roof of the building at the end of the alley observing the three. He is wearing white pants, white robe and glasses. The sun glints off his glasses as he pushes them up further on his nose.

Later that same evening Rukia's pager goes off once again alerting her to the presence of another Hollow. She gets Ichigo and Shiro but once again when they arrive the Hollow is not there.

Shiro lets out a irritated breath, "These false alarms are getting on my nerves, Rukia can't you get that thing fixed?"

"It can't just be repaired in your local electronics shop." She says, frustrated as well.

"Well, bickering among yourselves, not very professional is it?" says a smooth voice behind them. They group spins around to look at the newcomer. He is around the brothers' age and wearing a strange set of clothes, all white, and glasses.

"Who're you?" Shiro asks him.

The stranger opens his mouth to speak but then looks toward his left and says, "A Hollow is near."

Before anyone can ask what he means Rukia's pager goes off for the umpteenth time that day and she looks down. "He's right," she says. "There is a Hollow nearby."

The other teen looks at them in disdain, "Can you really not sense such a simple thing?" he scoffs. He then turns in the direction of the Hollow and puts his right arm out straight in front of himself. There is a bracelet on his wrist with a cross pendant with a circle around the top hanging from it. Rukia's eyes widen at this but she watches as a bow of spirit energy forms from the boy's hand and he draws it back, firing a spirit arrow at the Hollow in the distance.

The arrow pierces straight through the creatures head and it disintegrates before it can even let out a howl.

The trio turns towards him and Shiro asks, "Who and what are you??"

"My name is Uryuu Ishida, I am a Quincy." He says, facing away from them. He then walks away into the dark evening leaving Rukia and the Kurosaki twins under the light of the street lamp above them.

[To be continued…]

* * *

Me: Rest assured that Chapter 7 is already underway! I know it was shorter than the others but I still have school and it was late. –fumes- That prison always ruins everything doesn't it? -Starts ranting under her breath about the unfairness of it all-

Shiro: Okay, while she's ranting I'll remind you to please review! Ichigo will, hopefully, be back with us next chapter… not good to be by yourself with this nut ball too long…

Me: I heard that!

Shiro: Oops, that's my cue. –runs off-


	7. Chapter 7

::Previously:: _We were introduced to the Quincy Uryuu Ishida._

**TealEyedBeing:** Love hearing from you! So awesome! I am really waiting for updates on some of YOUR stories though :/ Restart and My Split Personality! Haha! What's going on girl?

**Hollowfiedme1:** So awesome! Can't wait to hear from you next chapter! (guess that would be this one)

* * *

Me: Hiiiii! Happy St. Patrick's Day! I found out my Japanese name! It is so awesome! Kadiri Karamorita! I love it! If anyone else wants to know their Japanese name I can look it up, you don't have to reveal your actual name. You can just state your preferred name ^^

Shiro: Yeah, she's a little happy today.

Ichigo: At least she isn't in one of her psycho moods today.

Me: ICHIIIII, you're back!! I'm so SO glad you're okay! Hope there is no hard feelings between us.  
-big, innocent, puppy eyes-

Ichigo: I have to say there aren't, because no one can resist those eyes.

Me: YAYYYY! -gives him a big hug- I am so happy! Oh, can you do the disclaimer, then we can continue the story!

Toshiro: Wait a minute…when do I come in?

Ichigo: Not for a while but you may be mentioned in a chapter soon if you're good Chibi-taicho.

Me: We borrowed that nickname from Shadow's Masquerade. Her story is the one that actually inspired me to write this one. Thank you Shadow's!! You should check out Breaking Through the Storm it is awesome!!

Ichigo: Now I can do what I was told and say- Misutii does NOT own Bleach or Bleach characters in any way, shape, or form.

* * *

The next day at school Ichigo and Shiro walk down the hall conversing darkly about the Quincy they had met the night before. "What was his name again?" Ichigo asks. "Oreo, Ury-something…"

"You mean Uryuu Ishida?" asks a female voice behind them. They jump slightly in surprise as they turn around and see Orihime standing there.

"Oh, hey Orihime…yeah, how do you know him?" Ichigo asks her.

"We are in the Handy Crafts Club together!" she beams.

The boys' mouths drop open, "Whaaaaaa?" they exclaim.

"Yeah, come on, I'll show you!" Orihime bounces off down the hall; the brothers follow the strange girl.

They look into the Craft Club's room and, sure enough, there sits Uryuu reading a small book. "Whay is he in the crafting club? Is he even any good?" Shiro asks.

"Just watch," Orihime says as she points out a girl walking up to Uryuu, a bunny with a rip in its arm in her hands.

"Umm," she starts timidly. "Ishida-kun, could you possibly—Oh!" she exclaims as Uryuu takes the stuffed animal, tossing it into the air as he grabs his sewing kit. He grabs and threads a needle before the animal comes back down and he catches it effortlessly, sewing it in the blink of an eye. He tosses it back to the girl and she thanks him.

"Don't mention it," he says. "In fact, don't talk to me anymore."

"Umm, okay…" the girl consents as she walks back to her friends, a slightly confused look on her face.

"I don't understand," Orihime states. "Why would he do something so nice but then say something so awful?" she asks.

"Don't know," replies Ichigo.

Later that afternoon, Uryuu is walking home but then suddenly stops near the top of a set of stairs and turns. "You two going to follow me all the way home?" he asks to seemingly no one.

Shiro and Ichigo come from around the corner and chuckle, a little embarrassed.

"Guess we're not as sneaky as we thought." Shiro says, rubbing the back of his head. "So when did you notice us?"

"Back when you were watching me outside the craft club classroom." Uryuu said bluntly.

"Ah, that long ago huh?" Ichigo said.

"The way you leak your spirit energy out so carelessly anyone could sense you two." The Quincy tells them coldly. "By the looks of it neither of you have knowledge of even the simplest skills."

Shiro tried to punch the pompous teen in the face but Ichigo held him back. "Not right now, maybe later Shiro." Ichigo calmed his hotheaded brother. [A/N: As you can see Ichigo is more level headed in this one while Shiro is the "fight now talk later" type of guy.] Shiro takes a deep breath and steps back. "You really get on my last nerve you smug, arrogant, bastard." Shiro growls through clenched teeth.

"Shinigami are my enemy." Uryuu informs them. "I know; why don't we have a little contest; whoever can kill the most Hollows is stronger."

"That idea is…completely ridiculous!" he shouts the last part. "We don't need to prove anything to you."

"You're afraid." Uryuu taunts him. Shiro fumes slightly but restrains himself from smashing the self-centered Quincy.

Ichigo turns to face his dark-haired classmate and says calmly, "You can't goad us into it, ike I told you before; we have no need to prove anything to you." Ichigo turns to leave and Shiro is right behind him when Uryuu calls to them, "I see now, your powers came from Rukia Kuchiki and you don't have permission to fight."

Ichigo stops walking in shock but then slowly turns around with a cold smirk on his face and says lowly, "Alright then, we accept your little challenge. When does this little contest start?" he asks.

"Right now." Uryuu answers. He crushes something in his hand that looks like a round pill.

"What was that?" questions Shiro.

"That was Hollow bait. It attracts Hollows." He says as if he is talking to a small child.

Shiro just about strangles him this time but Ichigo, again, holds him back. "Stop Shiro, it can wait. Right now we have some Hollows to take care of." His brother states as they hear the howls of several of the evil spirits already.

"See you later." Uryuu says simply and then runs off.

"Heh heh, good thing I borrowed this from Rukia huh?" Shiro chuckles pulling one of the red gloves with the flame engulfed skull on it from his back pocket. He pulls it on then shoves Ichigo into his Soul form. Ichigo takes the glove then and transforms Shiro into his shinigami form too.

"We should hide our bodies somewhere while we're dealing with these." Ichigo suggests.

"Yeah…how 'bout over there?" his brother points out an old warehouse a ways down the street.

"That works I suppose; come on." Ichigo picks up his body and sprints toward the old building.

Meanwhile Rukia is in Urahara Shoten; small, secluded, candy shop in Karakura town. She is talking to the owner, Kisuke Urahara about checking out her pager when suddenly it goes off. She pulls it out and what she sees makes her eyes widen.

"Why are there so many Hollows appearing so suddenly?" she asks, more to herself than anyone.

"Someone cracked a piece Hollow bait," Kisuke explains. Rukia turns to look at the man before her, a questioning look in her eyes.

Urahara; a sandy blonde, wearing a green and white striped hat and wooden clogs, explains more. "Hollow bait is several strong souls compacted into a small pill shaped tablet; when you crush it the souls scatter and the Hollows, sensing these souls, are unable to resist the temptation and are lured to the area of where it was released."

"Who could have such a thing and why would they use it?" Rukia asks.

"I have no idea." Kisuke replies happily. Rukia gives her eccentric friend a strange look but shakes it off as she remembers Shiro and Ichigo.

"See you later Kisuke!" she calls as she dashes towards the door. He just waves and smiles then gets up to do other things in his shop.

Elsewhere, the twins are busy slashing down Hollows left and right. In the distance they can see blue energy arrows firing off every couple seconds, signaling that the Quincy who had challenged them was quite busy destroying his own fair share of Hollows.

Several hours later, the two shinigami brothers landed in a small clearing in a park for a short rest from the fighting. Not long after, Uryuu lands nearby panting lightly; he had been fighting hard too. Suddenly a huge, seemingly endless swarm of Hollows start to pour through shadowy portals all over the sky.

"The hell?!" Shiro exclaims. "There are more?"

His younger double turns to Uryuu and shouts, "What the hell did you use to draw all these Hollows here?"

He doesn't answer because he himself does not have one. 'That bait wasn't very strong, it shouldn't have drawn so many!' he thinks.

Rukia sees all the Hollows appearing and follows the feeling of the brothers' reiatsu and soon she too arrives in the small clearing. She looks around and immediately spots the twins then she sees the Quincy boy they met last night. 'What's he doing here? Is he the one who released the bait?' she thinks but then jerks her head back to the Kurosaki brothers as she realizes something. 'Wait, how did they get into their Soul forms?'

She then checks her pockets and notices then that she is missing one of her gloves; she lets out an exasperated sigh. 'Shiro.' Is all she thinks as she assumes who took it.

Just as quickly as they start appearing though the Hollows start retreating, seeming to flee from something; a huge rip in the sky then starts to appear and Rukia gasps. 'No, it couldn't have lured a Menos here, could it?' she thinks, horrified. 'Oh no; Shiro and Ichigo!'

The afore mentioned siblings see the rip appearing in the sky and wonder what could be coming through it. "Must be something huge to need a space that big to come here. Come on Ichigo!" Shiro shouts as he runs towards the Menos Hollow who had just stepped out. As he is running Ichigo sees when the giant Hollow notices his brother because it starts to gather a ball of red energy in its mouth.

"A Cero; no…SHIRO LOOK OUT!" he hears Rukia shout from behind him somewhere. He has no time to wonder when she arrived though as he sprints forward and blocks the violent blast of the Cero from hitting Shiro.

Shiro was shocked when he saw the Cero suddenly come towards him, he didn't know what to do, then suddenly Ichigo jumps in front of him and holds off the attack with his oversized sword. He blocks the attack, but the pressure seems to pushing him down; suddenly he shoves back roughly and the Cero is launched back towards the Menos. The huge Hollow lets out a long howl of pain and the retreats back into the rip it came through.

To say Rukia was stunned would be an understatement. 'He actually wounded a Menos alone!' she is then led to wonder what exactly this unusual pair really is. She is snapped out of her thoughts as she hears a grunt of pain from Ichigo and a cry of worry from Shiro. She looks up to see Ichigo collapse to the ground and then not move. 'His reiatsu is out of control!' she panics.

Uryuu realizes what is happening also and, despite his feelings for shinigami, runs over to the younger Kurosaki twin and starts firing arrows of spiritual energy into the air to stable out Ichigo's. Shiro stares in surprise as he watches Uryuu firing the large amounts of unstable energy upwards. 'I thought he hated shinigamis.' He thinks to himself in confusion.

Several minutes later and Ichigo is stabilized and Uryuu has some bleeding fingers from firing so many powerful arrows. Ichigo looks up at the young Quincy and smiles his thanks to him. He just gives him a curt nod in response and starts to walk away. Rukia and Shiro rush over to him then, Rukia looks worried and his brother slaps on the back of his head.

"Ow; what was that for?" he yells.

"For scaring me half to death you idiot!" his protective brother yells right back.

Ichigo glares at him, "You're the idiot; you ran right at that Menos or whatever without even thinking, as usual!"

Shiro looks like he just got slapped as he realizes his brother is right. 'I put him in danger because I was so stupid…It's my fault!'

Ichigo, being so close to his twin realizes his mistake as he notices the look on Shiro's face and quickly tries to correct it. "No, Shiro, it's not your fault; I chose to do it, I was an idiot. I'm sorry."

"No, it IS my fault Ichigo, if I hadn't been so reckless and thoughtless this wouldn't have happened. I am really sorry Ichi."

Shiro looked so guilty then that Rukia thought she might cry, she noticed that Ichigo was looking guilty too for making his brother feel bad.

'Why does Ichigo always blame himself for everything? It's terrible how he tries to hold the whole world upon his shoulders.' She thinks sadly. 'No one so young should have so much stress and sadness.'

Rukia is amazed the next day when she wakes up to the sound of the twins horsing around as if nothing had happened at all the previous afternoon. She then smiles as she realizes just how close the two siblings really are.

* * *

Me: Awww, close sibling relationships, they are so nice. Sorry it's a little late! I have decided that if I have a [to be continued...] chapter I will post the second part that same day. I now need to do a rush job on Chapter 8...or it might just be a day late so i can make sure it doesnt turn out crappy XD Pleeeeeease review?

Shiro & Ichigo: We wanna hear comments about us! Please review and don't only favorite it!

Me: You two are being so self-centered today...kinda like Ishida!

Uryuu: I consider it an insult to be compared to those two morons.

Shiro: Not good...

Ichigo: Not good at all...better run Quincy.

Uryuu: Why would I do tha--

Me: Bite, Koori Kaze!!

Uryuu: oh dear... -runs away-

Ichigo: Anyway, while she is chasing the Quincy boy, press the rockin' button down there that says REVIEW!

Shiro: Please. It doesn't have to be long or anything. Misutii just wants to know what you think of her story!


	8. Chapter 8

::Note:: These are scenes that happened during Uryuu, Shiro, and Ichigo's little Hollow killing contest. The twins' friends encounter the monsters :D

Shiro: Yeah, doesn't Tatsuki end up having special powers too?

Me: -kicks him in the head- You big idiot! Now you just gave something away!!

Shiro: -rubs head and winces- Geez, sorry but did you have to kick me so hard?

Ichigo: He's right in a way you know, you are pretty violent…

Me: You two just shush and do the disclaimer…please?

Shiro and Ichigo: Mistuii does not own BLEACH the anime or manga.

Me: thank you, now on with my amazing story!

Shiro: -mutters- Not that great…

Me: Be quiet! You are lucky I am having a good day today.

Ichigo: You're forgetting something Misutii....shout outs?

Me: AGH! You're right Ichi! SHIRO! Why didn't you remind me?!?!

Shiro: ...

**TealEyedBeing: **I am very disppointed in you missy. -puts hands on hips- hahaha! nah, just kidding. I'm not disappointed with you...but you are the only one who reviewed last chapter! Loved it, I always get so excited when I see your reviews. I wanna review _your_ stories too so get. to. work! Get them brain juices going ^^

* * *

During the Quincy's little contest of strength with the Shinigami twins, said brothers' friends and family encounter stray Hollows elsewhere; Chad's runs into one first while with his friends walking down Market Street.

Chad saw the blurry monster while it was still jumping from the sky; he pushes his pals out of the way and jumps back right before the Hollow crashes his fist into the ground where they were just standing. The tall Hispanic teen notices that the creature seems to be targeting him and, in an effort to lead it away from the innocent people, runs off in the opposite direction.

"Chad, where are you going?" calls one of his friends, but he doesn't receive a reply from his big friend as he is already gone.

Karin Kurosaki is practicing soccer, or trying to at least, with her friends; she can't concentrate though for she has a feeling something is wrong. Her friends come up to her, a group of five nerdy wimpy looking boys; "Come on Karin, that's the umpteenth time you've spaced out! Do you wanna play or not?" asks one, the others agreeing.

"Sorry guys…I think I should get home now." She answers distractedly; she turns and walks away from them. She doesn't get far though, when she reaches the top of the stairs leading down from the park she sees Chad standing there panting slightly.

"Hey, you're Ichigo and Shiro's friend; Chad right? What are you doing here at our playground?" she asks in confusion.

He doesn't answer, instead his eyes widen and he throws himself to the ground, the dark haired Kurosaki girl protectively beneath him, as the Hollow he had been leading crushed the space where the two had been just standing moments ago.

Karin looks up and sees the grotesque monster before her clearly, its mask has puffy cheeks, small eyes, and big teeth, she simply stares at it in horror for a few seconds before she breathlessly sutters out her question, "Wh-What is that thing?"

Chad looks to her in confusion, "What are you talking about?"

Karin points to the Hollow and says a bit franticly, "That creature right there in front of us! Don't tell me you can't see it!"

"I can but it's just a blur, you can see it clearly?"

"Yeah, I've actually seen one before…I don't what they are but I know they have something to do with my brother's Shiro and Ichigo." She explains.

Before Chad can ask what the girl means he has to grab her and dodge the giant fist of the Hollow again as it attempts to flatten them. He swings his own powerful fist into the thing's hand and it pulls back in pain. Karin looks at the giant holding her in amazement thinking, 'What the heck did he just do?'

When Chad stops again he looks around for the Hollow but doesn't see it; "Where did it go?" he asks.

"To your right; look out!" Karin shouts, but it's too late as the monster's fist slams into them and they go flying across the field.

Karin gets up but Chad lies still, she looks at him and he has blood trailing down his face. "Hey big guy, are you okay?" she asks in concern.

He doesn't get an answer out before the girl's friends from earlier come running up shouting questions of "Are you okay?" and "What happened?" When they reach her however they stare at Chad lying on the ground.

"Whoa, did you do that? You really did a number on him Karin!" says one of them, the others nod in agreement.

Karin looks at them with terror and screams, "You guys have to get out of here; it's not safe!"

They don't listen though and instead protest, "We come over here to see if you're alright and you just yell at us? Some gratitude you got Kurosaki."

Karin sees the hollow coming back and tackles the boys to the ground, Chad watches all this and remembers a conversation he had with his grandfather.

**[Flashback]**

_"Sado, don't tell me you hit someone again. What good does it do to hurt someone when they hurt you? All you do is cause more pain. You should use your big strength to protect yourself and others." His grandfather explains to a young Sado._

**[End Flashback]**

"I understand Obuelo **[1]** ," Chad says to himself as he picks himself up off the ground and rushes toward the Hollow. Karin watches the big teen run towards the masked creature and her eyes almost pop out of her head in shock as she watches him punch the beast, watches as it flies back as if fired from a cannon, and then it disintegrates into the air and vanishes.

When the dust clears Chad's arm is covered in a black and magenta colored piece of arm armour. The young Kurosaki girl stares at it in amazement for a moment before she snaps out of it and asks, "Hey big guy, what happened to your arm? Are you alright?"

He looks at her for a minute before he gives her a simple thumbs up. She freezes as she thinks, 'Did he really just do that? That is so lame!' But then she sees him fall over and collapse to the ground then lay still. She rushes over to him and asks quickly, "Are you okay?"

He gives a slight nod then asks her, "Just tell me you aren't hurt; say it Ichigo's sister."

"Are you kidding? The only one hurt here is you, you stupid giant!"

"I see…well to me that sounds good." he is then suddenly kicked in the head by Karin.

"Not good you jerk!" she yells. "What in hell's name is good about someone, I mean anyone, getting hurt? What kind of macho crap are ya trying to sell me ya risk-taking dumbass! That kinda logic really ticks me off! You guys wanna look cool and act all slick just like my stupid brothers Shiro and Ichigo!" she stops her rant to let out a growl of frustration then yells, "I've had it; you stay put and I'll go call my dad to put you back in one piece. Now don't move or I'll kick you again ya lame cook." She then runs off.

'So that's Shiro and Ichigo's sister." He thinks. "I can see the relation cause she kicks just like her brothers."

During that incident Orihime, Tatsuki, and Chizuro are busy cleaning up a broken window at the school. Tatsuki and Chizuro are doing most of the work however because Orihime is busy staring at the roof of the school at a shadowy figure that she senses is hiding there.

"Man, if I knew they were gonna make us clean up the mess I never would have come to see what happened. Why not make the jerks responsible do the dirty work?" Chizuro complains.

"It's because you made such a big deal out of it." Tatsuki tells her.

"What about you?" the redhead complains.

"What?" Tatsuki growls.

"Yeah, what?"

"But still," Tatsuki states. "Doesn't it seem like they were all acting kind of strange?"

"What the…What's up with Orihime?" Chizuro suddenly asks, looking over the dark haired girl's shoulder. She creeps up beside her and says, "Orihime, you keep looking so cute and adorable and I'll have to kiss you!" She puckers up but Orihime doesn't seem the notice that or when Tatsuki comes up and starts arguing with her.

Orihime then seems to come back to reality and says, albeit nervously, "Hey you guys, I just remembered this new show I watched, it has a new episode on today and I don't wanna miss it. Why don't we all go home now." She suggests.

"Huh?" her friends say intelligently. The orange head starts pushing them in front of her saying to hurry and that she would make them curry popcorn.

"Hey, take it easy, what's the rush orihime?" Tatsuki protests.

"I don't wanna miss it! It's gonna start any minute!" her friend replies and continues to push them.

Orihime thinks to herself, 'The first thing I thought was, I wish I didn't notice, but then I thought, we have to get out of here! I'm certain now, if we stay here we are in danger! Somehow it's like my whole body is tingling and telling me, we have to get away!' She looks back and sees an octopus like masked creature creeping over the wall from the school roof.

She jerks out of her thoughts as Tatsuki pulls away suddenly and says, "Oh, sorry guys, you can go on ahead without me, I gotta go change. See ya in a bit!" she runs off and Orihime shouts after her to stop but she doesn't listen. Orihime then freezes as she senses the creature behind her again. She gulps and slowly turns around when she hears a voice.

"You can see me can't you?" it says.

The girls gasps when she gets a full look at the hollow before her; it has long purple tentacles, a white bone mask covering its face, and narrowed yellow eyes.

Chizuro then pipes up, "What's wrong now Orihime; what are you looking at?"

The girl in question turns to her friend and says slightly frantic, "You have to run Chizuro! You have to get away, run!"

"I won't let you ggo anywhere," the feminine hollow says. Orihime notices the bumps on the monsters forehead start to bulge and then shoot purple seed-like bullets out that burst in a liquid, green, oozy substance on contact with anything. Orihime cries out as the windows around them break but then gasps and turns when she hears Chizuro call out in surprise. 'She's been hit!' Orihime thinks.

She runs over to her fallen friend but she is already on her feet, Orihime sighs a small sigh of relief and Chizuro looks at her. "What's this," she says. "tears for me? I know you look cute when you're crying but I like you much better laughing." She puts her hand on her friend's shoulder but then suddenly she grabs Orihime's wrist very tightly and holds it up.

"Chizuro, stop; you're hurting me!" Orihime cries.

"What's happening, I don't have control of my arm!" Chizuro panics.

Orihime then hears a dark laugh from the Hollow behind her.

"What did you do to Chizuro?" she shouts.

"I don't like to fight so I make you humans fight amongst yourselves; I fire these seeds from my forehead and I am able to control whomever they hit!" the hollow boasts. "Now you've nowhere to run, die!" it shouts as several students suddenly appear and run and stumble towards the girl like zombies.

"What the hell," Orihime hears a voice start to say, then Tatsuki comes jumping over the group and kicks away those closest to Orihime. "are you doing?" her friend finishes, she turns to Orihime then and asks, "Orihime, what is that thing?"

"You mean you can see it too?" she questions. "Yeah, it's kinda blury but I can make it out partially. What is it?"

"I don't know I've seen one before though." Orhime says, remembering the night when her brother attacked her and then died again.

Tatsuki turns to the hollow while Orihime is lost in her thoughts, "Hey ugly blob, we have an agreement, Orihime and I, whoever makes her cry gets the crap beat out of them! You chose the wrong person to hurt!" She starts to run toward the floating octopus creature when she notices her shoes glowing a bright blue color. 'What the hell is going on?' she thinks. Then they transform into metallic black and silver boots which are surprisingly still very light.

'Wow, don't know what happened but I feel some sort of power in me now.' Tatsuki thinks; she chuckles then and sprints towards the Hollow faster than she ever has before; she jumps in to the air for a second time and aims a kick at the white mask by instinct.

Unfortunately, the Hollow realizes what she's doing and fires several of her seeds at Tatsuki, they hit her dead on and knock her to the ground close to Orihime but she gets right back up and asks, "What the hell are these supposed to do? You trying to make me a flower garden or something?"

Orihime and the Hollow are shocked, the Hollow more so because her seeds had never failed before. "What sort of creature are you?" she asks. "Take this!" she shouts as she fires more of her controlling seeds at the confident girl below her. Tatsuki is about to be hit again when a funnel of wind surrounds her; when it clears Orihime is standing there with six little fairy-like people flying in continuous circles around them.

"Orhime, what are these things?" she asks. Her friend turns to her and says, "They are part of my powers." And turning back to the enemy before them says angrily, "When Tatsuki said you picked the wrong person to pick a fight with I think she meant you picked the wrong person to hurt!"

The Hollow growls before shooting many more seeds towards the two girls but when Orihime shouts, "Baigon, Hinagiku, Lily; Santen Kesshun, I reject!" a triangular shield forms in front of them and blocks the attack.

"Whaaaat?" Tatsuki gasps out. "What was that Orihime?"

"These are Baigon, Hinagiku, Lily, Tsubaki, Shun'ou, and Ayame; they are my Shun Shun Rikka. Baigon, Hinagiku, and Lily, like you just saw can create a protective shield in front of me. Shun'ou and Ayame can reverse any damage done to an object and Tsubaki can create a shield around himself and pierce through anything! They are from the hairpins my brother gave me." She explains.

"Wow." Is all Tatsuki can get out. "How 'bout this though, you take care of the other students and I'll do the fighting part, alright?"

Her friend smiles and nods her consent then rushes off to heal the other kids from earlier.

Tatsuki turns back to the hollow, "Ready to meet your doom? If not, too bad. Cuz here. It. Comes!" she shouts as she leaps up and comes down to land a hard kick to the creatures mask as she yells out the last word.

"Impossible!" the Hollow gasps out as she disappears. Orihime had healed all the students quickly and she walks over to Tatsuki and smiles. "We did it!" she said, then she says softly, "Soten Kisshun." And Shun'ou and Ayame come and surround Tatsuki in a golden shield. Tatsuki immediately starts to feel her injuries fade away.

"Amazing…" she whispers. When Orihime is done though, she is exhausted; she had never had to use her powers so much until now; she collapsed to the ground. Before Tatsuki could do anything she too felt her exhaustion creep up on her suddenly and engulf her, she followed Orihime in her rush to meet the ground. Orihime's Shun Shun Rikka revert back into the turquoise flower hairpins and land on the ground next to her.

Urahara shows up out of nowhere then and picks up Orihime while his associate, Tessai, picks up Tatsuki while carrying Chad also.

Elsewhere, Karin is returning to where she left Chad with her father and younger twin Yuzu. They come panting up the stairs only to find him gone. "Where did he go?" Karin shouts.

"Are you sure this is the place?" her more timid sister asks.

"Yeah I'm sure! The man was left beaten up and lying here!" Karin protests.

"Karin, you are such a liar!" her dad says loudly. "I know what it is; Daddy isn't paying enough attention to you, but there's no need to make up wild stories just to get attention!" He opens his arms wide then and says, "Come give your hunky dad a big hug!"

Karin instead gives him a punch in the face and as he falls to the ground he says weakly, "Thatta girl."

"You're such an idiot!" she shouts.

"I think maybe we should go home now, this place is giving me the creeps." Yuzu says.

Their dad continues to lie on the ground holding his nose and moaning.

"You're hopeless." Karin sighs.

* * *

[1] = Grandfather (spanish)

Shiro: Okay, Misutii has run off to start writing Chapter 9 already and she made this chapter longer than the others to compensate for the late update on the previous chapter. She left us here to tell you to _**REVIEW**_!!!

Ichigo: Really simple really if you dont know how...just press the button down there **V V V V V** that says Review on it! We would really like to hear your opinions!! Even if it's just one word!

Shiro: We actually did get a one word review once. All it said was "Interesting."

Ichigo: Oh yeah! That was my favorite! Thank you (you know who you are)!!

Shiro: Yup, so review and we hope you are all as excited as we are to see what happens next!!


	9. Chapter 9

Me: Whew, this is kinda late again but I got it done! It's pretty long too. Chapter 10 is already started!

Shiro: For once you're actually ahead of things.

Me: Why do you have to be so mean to me? T_T

Ichigo: Shiro, knock it off...you might make her mad instead of upset.

Shiro: Oops...

Me: Do the disclaimer you two and then I can do my shout outs!

Shiro + Ichigo: Misty does NOT own Bleach the anime or the characters.

Me: YAY!

**ConkedOutSchizo:** LOVE your Pen Name for one thing but one another note THANK YOU!! I was struggling with my other idea of Ichigo's zanpakto and you actually told me something I have been wondering about for a while! I was trying to figure out what kind of sword Zangetsu was! And I LOVE your idea, the Moon twin and the Sun twin! SO cool! (oh, and yes I do know about the review reply button but this is SO much more fun!)

**Impstar:** Awww, you cheer me up and make me feel better for being late. I will consider your idea, would be kinda cool! They are called Vizards by the way ^^ And I try to update everyday because I noticed how other authors of Bleach fanfics seem to take foreeeeever to update and I didn't want to make my readers wait weeks to read more so that they forgot what happened ^^

**TealEyedBeing:** Your muses shouldn't be so mean to you but you DO need to get back to your stories ^^ haha! Thank you!

**Hollowfiedme1:** I don't really like Uryuu much either..but I have to put him in the story. I don't have Kon in this because he isn't an essential character and he kinda gets on my nerves too much.

**Comet1234:** Thank you! You were my first new reviewer so CONGRATULATIONS!!! -throws confetti while the twins blow noise makers-

* * *

Shiro and Ichigo wake up the next morning late for school and have to rush around to get going. When they are ready Shiro goes over to their closet and bangs his fist against it.

"Hey Rukia," he hollers. "we're gonna be late for school! ...Hey, come on!"

"I heard you, alright?" Rukia says irritably, opening the sliding door.

"Are you okay Rukia? Nothing's wrong is it?" Ichigo asks their unfortunate roommate.

"No, probably just a little tired from yesterday's incident." She lies, she crouches on the windowsill and says, "See you at school!" before she leaps out.

"Uh-huh…alrighty." He mutters.

At school Orihime, Tatsuki, and several other girls are playing a mini game of baseball. "Okay Tatsuki; give me your best shot!" Orihime calls out, waving her bat in the air.

"Ok, here it comes 'Hime!" her brunette friend calls back as she kicks the soccer ball they're using instead of a baseball. Orihime swings her bat hard and the ball goes sailing over the far field's fence.

"And it is outta here! YAY!" she cheers.

"Well it was an easy target Orihime, there's no need to break out champagne or anything." Tatsuki chides lightly. Orihime just laughs.

Ichigo and Shiro, along with Keigo and Chad, are busy putting other soccer balls away in the school equipment shed when Ichigo notices the girls.

"Are they actually playing or what?" he asks himself before ever enthusiastic Keigo leaps onto his back and teases, "Staring at the pretty ladies Berry?" he looks over at the group himself and then gives an 'ohhhhh' of realization before asking, "Staring at Orihime are ya? She is so cute and perfect!"

"Keigo, you idiot, you better get off of him now." Shiro growls, but before his friend can move an inch he kicks him off releasing his twin from the unintentional chokehold Keigo had on him. Ichigo gives a small grin of gratitude as he gulps air into his starving lungs.

Keigo jumps back up then and shouts, "You know it's perfectly normal for teenage boys to be obsessed with really hot cuties!"

"Fine, I'll agree with you, there's nothing wrong with it." The white haired twin says, resigned.

Keigo is then socked in the head with another ball and the brothers turn to see Mizurio standing and yelling at them, "Quit all your horsing around and get over here and help me out you lazy bums!"

"Oh, right…" Shiro says. "Sorry!" he shouts with Ichigo.

Soon the twins carry the last crate of soccer balls into the shed and sigh in relief. "Phew, all done."

"Thanks a lot guys." Mizurio says gratefully. "That reminds me, have you seen Uryuu anywhere? He wasn't at school today."

"Now that you mention it," Keigo says. "I saw him running around the park yesterday talking to himself; it was like he was fighting imaginary monsters or something."

"Maybe he could've been practicing for something." His shorter friend suggests.

"That's it exactly, maybe he's in drama or something and he was just rehearsing for a play!"

'Thank goodness Keigo is a complete idiot.' The twins think in sync.

'Looks like we dodged another sticky situation.' Ichigo thinks.

Meanwhile Rukia watches the students of Karakura High interact while she looks deep in thought about something. She seems to be staring intently at the orange and white haired twins for some reason unknown.

Later the class lets out a collective gasp as they see Uryuu come in the classroom with bandages covering his right arm and left hand.

"Uryuu, what in the world happened to you?" the teacher asks worriedly.

"I…fell down the stairs." He replies lamely. Even though it's obvious the whole class doesn't believe him the teacher brushes it off and simply tells him to take his seat.

"Don't let it bother you, it was his choice and either way it would've happened anyway." Rukia tells Ichigo and his twin when she sees them staring at the Quincy. They quickly look away and Shiro mutters, "We aren't worried about him."

"Funny," Rukia teases. "I never mentioned you being worried about him I just said not to let it bother you."

Shiro turns and probably would've tried to hit her if Ichigo hadn't held him back. Orihime, Chad, and Tatsuki stare at the tense twins and at Uryuu as they remember after they were healed by Tessai and Urahara they had rushed to the park and witnessed the incident with the Menos and the three teens and what happened afterwards. Orihime looks especially hard at Ichigo with concern but he seems physically fine so she opts instead to listen to the murmurs going on around her about how people think Uryuu got his injuries.

After class ends Keigo dances up to Ichigo and Shiro and asks in his cheery way, "Hey, you guys ready for lunch?"

"Yeah, sure; you mind if I invite someone new to join us?" Ichigo asks them.

"No problem!" Keigo agrees happily. When he sees Ichigo invite Uryuu though he regrets his enthusiastic reply. 'No, not the freakizoid! He must've blown a fuse to do something so stuuupid! I can't be seen with that geek; anyone but Mr. Bandages!' he thinks in a panic and says out loud, "Ichigo have you gone crazy?!"

His friend Mizurio pipes up, "I think you're the crazy one!"

Keigo hears Uryuu refuse the offer and suddenly sides with his pal and exclaims, "Oh, how rude!"

"Oh, come on it's not a big deal." Shiro chimes in and adds, "besides, Asano's buying."

Keigo whines, "I'm buying?"

"Well, if you insist." Uryuu gives in, adjusting his glasses.

"Oh, it's like that, huh?" Keigo despairs.

Outside, Rukia is sitting in a tall tree thinking again. 'They would be wondering what is going on now since I haven't reported in so long…I'm bound to be under suspicion. They should be sending someone soon.' She thinks gloomily. She is suddenly snapped out of her thoughts as she hears voices from below calling her name.

"Rukia, come eat lunch with us!" Orihime calls out from within her group of friends.

Elsewhere at the Urahara Shop, Ururu are outfront; Ururu is sweeping and Jinta is swinging imaginary homeruns.

"Jinta, you're supposed to be helping me sweep." Ururu says in her gentle voice.

"Oh put a sock in it Ururu, girls are supposed to do that stuff." Jinta scoffs as he swings another hit with his broom. The young girl hears a sound behind her and turns to see a black housecat with bright yellow eyes. She goes and opens the door to the shop and finds Urahara and Tessai sitting inside.

"Mr. Urahara, Mr. Tessai," she calls. They look up and she continues, "There's a cat." she points.

"Ah well let's see who it is then!" Kisuke says.

The three come out and the blond shop owner shouts, "Oh yes, it's Yoruichi!" he runs over to the cat as it bristles its fur but it s picked up by the eccentric man. "Let me take a look at you! Oh its been so long! Who's daddy's favorite kitty?" he coos.

"What's with the cat?" Jinta asks.

"That is Yoruichi, that cat just happens to be Mr. Kisuke's best friend." The tall dark man explains.

Jinta gives a short chuckle, "Kinda makes you feel sorry for the guy." He holds back another laugh and continues, "I mean, having a cat for a best friend?"

Back at Karakura High Ichigo, Shiro, Uryuu, Keigo, and Mizurio are eating a quiet lunch on the roof. Keigo is miserable and moping in the tense atmosphere surrounding the group.

'Awwww, this is the most miserable lunch ever." He complains to himself. 'What am I doing with these lameoids anyway; it's like eating in a graveyard or something!'

He is so busy feeling sorry for himself he doesn't realize Chad walk up behind him and freaks out when he notices.

"What's wrong?" Chad asks in his usual quiet way.

"Oh, it's just you Chad, whew." Keigo sighs.

"You seem a little on edge Keigo." The big teen points out.

"I am not, shut up!" Keigo pouts like a little kid, crossing his arms.

Chad sees Uryuu then but shrugs and sits down in between Shiro and Ichigo. Shiro looks over to their still pouting friend and suggests, "Hey Keigo, if you're done why don't you tell us one of your stories?"

"No way, I'm not in the mood." He refuses.

Shiro gives him his death glare, "Well get in the mood."

'No fair," he thinks. 'If you wanted happy times you shouldn't have let your brother invite that wet blanket Uryuu to sit with us! But I'll do my best…' He jumps up and starts excitedly, "So there I was, dudes, out on the town on a Saturday night, trolling for sushi! The first place I went to…" his continues as Uryuu suddenly gets Ichigo's attention, drawing Shiro's gaze too.

"Hey Ichigo, why did you invite me to lunch; if it's because you're feeling responsible for my injuries, you're wrong and wasting your time. I don't need anyone's pity and I certainly don't want your friendship."

"Eat your lunch and shut up." Shiro says. "He just felt like it, that's all."

"Certainly had nothing to do with sympathy or because I like you." Ichigo adds in.

"You should consider yourself lucky to not be eating alone." His twin says.

"Oh, I'm supposed to feel lucky? You have a lot of nerve, especially since I prefer eating alone."

"It's not always good to just eat by yourself; you'll never make any friends that way." Ichigo points out.

"This whole thing was your idea anyway; I don't even know why I agreed."

Mizurio is the only one paying attention to the argument between the three boys. 'Man, those two are a lot alike.' He thinks as he looks between Shiro and Uryuu. 'Ichigo just kinda seems like the middle man…'

Keigo is just finishing his story then, "…had a date with destiny and Destiny had just ordered the lobster. Get it?" Keigo asks as he cracks up.

Over with Rukia, Tatsuki, Orihime, Chizuro, and three other girls; Orihime is digging through her lunch bag when she shouts triumphantly, "Tada! It's a Choco-Jelly-Triple decked-torte; it's eggplants and sponge cake, green bean jelly filling and chocolate frosting!" she explains, much to the others dismay and disgust.

"Yugh, how can you eat stuff like that Orihime?" her friend Tatsuki asks.

"The question is; how can she eat like that and not be as big as a blimp?" one girl with short tan hair asks.

Another dark haired girl says dryly, "I guess her boobs absorb the calories." Referring to the girl's rather large assets.

Another girl in the group with short, wavy, brown hair leans towards Rukia and asks, "Hey, can I ask you something; do you have a crush on Ichigo or Shiro?"

Rukia spits out the chocolate milk she had been drinking in surprise. "Huh?" she says turning to the girl.

"I'll take that as a maybe but who exactly do you like and what exactly is your relationship with them?"

"Well," Rukia says nervously. "They're my friends!"

"Mahab, that's not the sort of question you just ask right out like that!" the tan haired girl exclaims.

Mahab turns to her and defends, "I don't see why not; it's the question you all wanted to ask her yourself but none of you were willing to do it so I did."

The girl leans back in shock and asks, "Hey, who said I wanted to know anything like that anyway?"

Chizuro pipes in, "Well, I still wanna know the answer!"

"What do you have against the guys anyway Michiru?" Tatsuki asks the tan haired girl.

"It's not that I have anything against him," Michiru disagrees. "I just think there's something scary about them, that's all."

"Scary looking?" Orihime asks. "Well I don't think so, I like his face."

"Really," Michiru asks her. "Wel you must've changed your mind cuz I remember you used to be afraid of him too!"

Mahab turns back to Rukia then, who is still wiping her milk off her face. "Well?" she presses. "What's the story Rukia?"

All the girls turn to the small girl with curiosity. There is a tense air over head as the girls wait for her answer. Finally Rukia looks down and says quietly, "Ichigo, Shiro, I are…" she pauses as the whole group lets out a collective gasp of surprise but continues.

"Ichigo, Shiro, and I are just friends, that's all there is to it!" Rukia replies, looking up and smiling. The girls let out a disappointed groan and turn back to their lunches and individual conversations; all except Mahab and Michiru.

"Really?" Mahab questions.

"Yes." Rukia answers firmly.

"You mean you don't feel anything special for 'em, not at all?" the girl insists.

"No, nothing." Rukia responds.

"Well that's too bad for us girls," Orihime pipes in. "If Rukia likes Ichigo or Shiro like me then we would have so much to talk about; and if Tatsuki decided she liked one of them then pretty soon we would all start liking them and we could sit around and talk about all the reasons we like them. It would be a sure win for the girl's team!" Orihime theorizes.

"Someone stop her before her nonsense starts to make sense to me." Tatsuki moans.

"Say, it's actually not a bad idea to have an affection competition." Chizuro says. 'But I have to make sure I get first dibs on the beautiful smile of Orihime!' she thinks.

Suddenly Chizuro stands up and starts taking her uniform off while lunging towards Orihime. "So let's start with a one-on-one, just you and me, come to me Orihime—OOF!"

Chizuro's stomach met Tatsuki's foot. "Not exactly what I had in mind!" Chizuru moaned as she fell to the ground clutching her midsection.

"Just give it a rest Chizuru!!" Tatsuki yells.

Orihime giggles and turns back to Rukia as Tatsuki continues to pound the crazy redhead. "Anyways Rukia tomorrow I'll be sure to bring you some of my other yummy desserts so you can try them!"

"Okay, I'll think about it." Rukia says cautiously. The rest of lunch goes by happily and Rukia thinks about how nice it is. 'But I don't belong here.' She thinks sadly.

After school Rukia runs up to the twins. "Ichigo, Shiro!" she calls out.

They turn around to face her together and Shiro asks, "What is it?"

"Is it a Hollow?" Ichigo asks.

Rukia just stares at him for a second before what he said registered, "Oh no, it's not that..." she answers, looking down. There is a moment of silence before Rukia looks up again and says, "Guys, are you feeling alright?"

The brothers look confused for a minute but reply, "We feel fine."

"Why are you asking?" Ichigo asks, confused over the girl's strange behavior today.

"It's nothing, nevermind."

"Is there gonna be another one like yesterday?" Ichigo asks in alarm.

"If a Menos Grande showed up every day we would be in big trouble."

"You know Rukia, you're acting a bit strange today." Shiro points out. "Is everything okay?"

Rukia just stays silent and stares at the ground lost in her thoughts.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Ichigo questions.

"Oh nothing, I'm fine."

Later that evening Yoruichi is sitting out front of Urahara's shop, staring at the sky. Kisuke comes out with some milk and a dish and asks, "Whatcha doing Yoruichi? I brought you some milk." He notices the black cat staring at the sky and teases, "Oh, checking the sky for rain?"

"You can quit with the act now Urahara." The cat says suddenly as it turns to look at the man. "We both know what is really coming. The two of them are already here though their purpose is not clear."

"Do you want to talk about this before or after you have your milk?" Kisuke asks, suddenly serious.

* * *

PLEASE Review! I really want to hear your opinions and ideas!! No flames though please, constructive criticism is okay though.


	10. Chapter 10

Me: AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! I am soooooooooooooooo sorry! I didnt mean to take so long!!!

Shiro: Well if you hadn't been reading Percy Jackson...

Me: But Logan is so cute! I reeeeeally wanna see the movie!!

Ichigo: Who is this Logan person?

Me: He plays Percy in The Lightning Thief! I went on Google and looked him up and he is soooo cute! He's supposed to have BLACK hair though...what, do they not have hair dye or something?!

Shiro: Chill out Misutii.

Ichigo: She does not own us or the Bleach anime (or manga).

Me: no, i don't....and I is sorries but I am not doing shout outs this chapter...maybe next time.

Shiro+Ichigo: ON WITH THE STORY!

* * *

At the Kurosaki house Ichigo comes into his and his brother's room with a tray. "Hey Rukia I got your dinner here." He calls.

"She's not here." Shiro tells him. "She was gone when I came up and she left this note." He added, waving a piece of paper in the air. Ichigo takes the paper and reads: 'Thank you for everything but something has come up and I need to take care of it. Don't follow; I am not sure what will happen if you do.'

"Dammit." Ichigo curses. "What is that midget up to now?"

"No idea." His brother replies. Ichigo then turns to him with a questioning look on his face. "What?" Shiro asks him.

"Do you still have that glove?" Ichigo asks. Shiro smirks and pulls it from his pocket.

"I like how you think little brother. We gonna go after her?"

"Hell yes; now give me that thing." He takes the glove and shoves Shiro into his spirit form. Shiro does the same thing to him and they leap out their window, following the faint trail of Rukia's energy.

Two mysterious figures stand in the air above the Kurosaki Clinic and home. One man has long, bright, red hair with tattoos on his face; they are watching a person as they run down the road.

"Man, I didn't think we'd actually find her in a gigai. Heh, oh well," the man says. The two men disappeared as they used shunpo to get ahead of Rukia.

Rukia is sprinting down the street, oblivious to her pursuers, and keeps heading towards her meeting place. As she turns down another street she thinks about all the good times she had with Shiro and Ichigo's friends and how they became her friends too. She skids lightly to a stop when she almost collides with a tall man with bright, red, spiky hair in a high ponytail.

"Oh," she says in surprise, she looks up then to get a better look at the man and her eyes widen a little. "R-Renji?" she questions; 'Renji' just chuckles and nods. The small dark haired woman then notices the other figure, this man has black hair like hers with three hairclips hold his bangs in three lengths and two on the opposite side of his head wearing a pale blue scarf around his neck too.

"Nii-sama?" she asks in surprise; she clearly wasn't expecting these two men to be the ones to meet her. "Why did you come?"

Renji answers, "Why else would we come here? You contacted Soul Society saying you found two or more humans with unusually high spirit energy. Now what is this all about?"

"Well, there are two, twin brothers, which have abnormally high spirit energy, I can't explain it. Their friends seem to have been affected in some ways from being around that much energy; a few of them have developed powers of their own. One girl has a healing ability, it can reverse any damage done no matter how severe it seems. She can create a shield and block any attack that comes her way. Another girl seems to be immune to Hollow special abilities and has shoes that transform like a zanpakto and can purify Hollows. Another friend of the twins, a large boy, can create some sort of armor over his right arm and kill Hollows with it also. We also ran into an actual Quincy!" Rukia explained.

"Hmmm, sounds interesting; what about these twins and what are their friends' names?" Renji asked.

"Orihime Inoue, Tatsuki Arisawa, Sado Yasutora or Chad, and the twins are Shiro and Ichigo Kurosaki. They look almost exactly alike; they strongly resemble Kaien Shiba from all those years ago. The only differences are Shiro has pure white hair and piercing yellow eyes while Ichigo has vivid orange hair and light brown eyes."

The older Kuchiki sibling seemed particularly interested in the twins' and, turning to his sister clarifies, "You said their last name is Kurosaki?"

"Yes, do you know them nii-sama?" she asks.

"What is their father's name?" he asks instead.

"Their father's name is Isshin Kurosaki, why do you ask?"

"Their impossibly high spiritual energy and pressure may have to do with the fact that they are the sons of a very powerful ex-captain of the Gotei 13." He explains.

The red head and Rukia look at him in open surprise and slight disbelief; the disbelief mostly coming from Rukia.

"Nii-sama Byakuya, that man could not possibly be or have been a captain of the Gotei 13; he is too much of an idiot." Rukia objects.

"He may seem that way but he is a lot more intelligent than anyone may think, it's just an act to disguise the fact that he is practically a genius; similar to Captain Kyoraku in a way."

The very twins they were talking about, out of sight of the three shinigami, arrived just in time to hear the dark haired man ask, "What is their father's name?"

They were shocked by what they heard Rukia reveal next, "Their father's name is Isshin Kurosaki."

Rukia was talking to these strangers about them? Why would that man want to know the name of their father? Their question was answered as they heard the shocking explanation the dark haired man gave and were even more surprised when they heard Rukia call the man her older brother.


	11. AUTHOR

A/N: I am really very sorry but I have a serious case of writer's block and can't think of anything more for this story. I will be discontinuing it for now but if I can get my ideas flowing again I might come back to this story. I apologize. :(


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